Agriculture Acquisitions in Illinois

Staple Street Capital has partnered with the Huntington and Smith families to combine Pleasant View Gardens (Loudon, NH) and Four Star Greenhouse (Carleton, MI) under one ownership as a unified Proven Winners company. The investment will provide resources and strategic support to drive scale, improve distribution and marketing, and expand Proven Winners' reach into underserved North American markets while the founding families remain active owners.

Commodity & Ingredient Hedging (CIH) has acquired Advance Trading, Inc. (ATI), a Bloomington, Illinois–based provider of risk management and brokerage services to the grain industry. The deal was facilitated with funding from Charlotte-based private equity firm Falfurrias Management Partners; both companies will continue to operate under their current brands and no significant employment changes are expected.

nuEra Cannabis, a family-owned Illinois cannabis retailer, has acquired Ieso, an original Illinois cultivation licensee, adding an 85,000 sq. ft. cultivation and processing facility in Murphysboro, Illinois. The deal vertically integrates nuEra by bringing cultivation, hydrocarbon extraction and a commercial kitchen in-house to support wholesale and retail expansion across the state.

Intelinair, an Indianapolis-based provider of aerial imagery and analytics (AGMRI), has acquired Aker Technologies, a digital agronomy and drone-imagery company based in Effingham, Illinois. The deal expands Intelinair’s drone capabilities and product offerings, enhancing its AGMRI platform and operational capacity to better serve farmers and ag retailers; terms were not disclosed.

Ft. Lauderdale-based Plant Agricultural Systems has acquired Rochelle, Illinois-based glasshouse tomato grower MightyVine. Plant will integrate MightyVine's 30-acre hydroponic facility into its Active Production Site (APS) program to expand its controlled-environment agriculture footprint and digital/physical infrastructure in the U.S. Midwest.

SiteOne Landscape Supply (NYSE: SITE) completed the acquisition of Kaknes Landscape Supply, a wholesale distributor of nursery products operating a single location in Naperville, Illinois. The purchase expands SiteOne’s nursery presence in the Chicago market and marks the company’s 13th acquisition in 2022.

Charlotte-based private equity firm Falfurrias Capital Partners has made an investment in CIH, a Chicago-based, technology-enabled provider of agricultural commodity price risk management and education; terms were not disclosed. CIH's existing management team will remain in place and Falfurrias will support expansion of CIH's technology platform and join the company's board to help drive growth.

Fast Genetics, a subsidiary of STgenetics, has acquired Acuity Ag Solutions, the swine genetics business founded by Maschhoff Family Foods (The Maschhoffs). The acquisition is intended to accelerate genetic improvement, expand product offerings and global distribution, and combine complementary infrastructure and R&D capabilities between the businesses.

The Apple Rush Company, Inc. (APRU) announced the acquisition of Illinois-based Pursuit Hemp Farms, LLC to advance its seed-to-sale hemp strategy. Pursuit Hemp Farms is a family-run operation with roughly 1,400 acres of cropland that has been cultivating hemp since 2018; Apple Rush said the purchase will help vertically integrate growing, manufacturing and distribution of hemp-derived products.

New Mountain Capital has closed its acquisition of Profile Products, a Buffalo Grove, Illinois-based developer and manufacturer of engineered horticulture growing media, erosion control products and soil amendments. The deal follows Incline Equity Partners' partnership with Profile since 2018 and positions New Mountain to fund product innovation, capacity expansion and strategic add-on acquisitions to accelerate growth.

Farmers Edge Inc. (TSX: FDGE) has agreed to acquire CommoditAg, an online marketplace for agricultural inputs, with CommoditAg operating as a wholly owned subsidiary led by its existing management. The acquisition expands Farmers Edge's e-commerce capabilities and integrates CommoditAg's fulfillment network and supplier relationships into Farmers Edge's connected digital agriculture ecosystem.

DTN, a data and analytics company, has acquired Farm Market iD to integrate farm-level intelligence into DTN's portfolio and deliver enhanced data-driven solutions to producers and agribusinesses. The acquisition will allow DTN to leverage Farm Market iD's high-quality, hyper-local farm data to expand capabilities for targeted marketing and decision-grade insights across the agriculture value chain.

Skyline Global Partners LLC closed a growth equity investment in BRM Holdings LLC, the parent company of Gypsoil and Beneficial Reuse Management, on September 16, 2019. The investment will provide capital and strategic support to expand BRM’s manufacturing and distribution of specialty agricultural and construction products made from reusable industrial by-products; financial terms were not disclosed.