Greenwood Utilities, the city’s publicly owned utility company, evidently has a significant stake in the outcome of bankruptcy proceedings involving Express Grain Terminals LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.
“With a combined revenue of water and electricity, Express Grain is our second-largest customer,” Brian Finnegan, the utility company’s CEO, said while explaining that Milwaukee Tool is the largest. Finnegan was asked whether Express Grain owes money to the Greenwood Utilities and, if so, how much. He did not provide an answer.
Finnegan confirmed that income from Express Grain represents just under 10% of the utility company’s annual revenues. Greenwood Utilities has budgeted $28 million from metered sales in 2021-2022.
Express Grain’s electric bill primarily relates to the operation of its plant in Greenwood, where soybeans are processed for oil and meal and biodiesel is produced. The company owns grain storage and shipping terminals near Sidon that are served by Delta Electric Power Association. But John Coleman, Express Grain’s president and co-owner, said Wednesday that bills from Delta Electric are significantly lower than those from Greenwood Utilities.
Meanwhile, a federal bankruptcy court in Aberdeen has authorized Express Grain to pay nearly $2 million in operational costs, including $240,000 for electricity and $370,000 in payroll and taxes for approximately 180 employees. The largest payment would be $400,000 for propane, which is used in soybean oil processing.
The hearing marks the beginning of the Chapter 11 reorganizational process designed to make payments to creditors, often lower than what is owed, without forcing a company to discontinue operating.
“It is in everybody’s self interest that they come out of this,” Finnegan observed.
Among those who have urgent financial concerns are farmers who have sales contracts with Express Grain related to the 2021 harvest. Coleman said that it’s not just Express Grain’s future that is at stake but that of those with whom the company does business.
“It is not the best situation in the world to put people in, especially not at harvest. We are trying to get people to hang in there, and we know that a lot of people’s property (harvested crops) is at stake, including our own,” he said.
“We are doing everything in our power to make things right and make things work. I am confident that we will succeed.”
The family-owned company was founded in 2007. It erected the grain terminals near Sidon and also stores grain in facilities in Greenwood and Minter City. It bought a former cottonseed oil mill in 2015, revamped it for soybean processing and recently expanded to making biodiesel using oil from soybeans crushed at the mill. The expansion to biodiesel involved a $3 million investment and included the construction of four silos that stand up to 150 feet tall and can be seen from U.S. 82 in Greenwood.
- Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7241 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
