CHS sells Mexican foods operations
May 31, 2005
ST. PAUL, Minn. (May 31, 2005) - CHS Inc., announced today it has completed
the sale of its tortilla and chip operations to Gruma Corporation.
The sale consists of three plants located in New Brighton, Minn., Fort Worth,
Texas, and Phoenix, Ariz., with about 250 employees. Gruma Corporation, a subsidiary
of Gruma SA de C.V. based at Monterrey, Mexico, markets its finished products
under the Mission and Guerrero names.
"As we looked at the future direction of our operations and our investment
in the value-added food sector, we concluded that it is in the best interest
of all of our stakeholders that we divest of our Mexican foods operations and
focus on other areas of our food and grain processing business," said John
Johnson, CHS president and chief executive officer. "CHS remains committed
to its vision of linking producers to consumers through its other grain-based
food processing and manufacturing businesses."
CHS Inc. is a diversified energy, grains and foods company
committed to providing the essential resources that enrich lives. A Fortune
500 company, CHS is owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives from the Great
Lakes to the Pacific Northwest and from the Canadian border to Texas, along
with thousands of preferred stockholders. CHS provides products and services
ranging from grain marketing to food processing to meet the needs of customers
around the world. It also operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and, through
a broad range of working partnerships, markets and distributes Cenex® brand
energy products, along with agronomic inputs and feed to rural America. CHS
is listed on the NASDAQ at CHSCP.