Growmark, Inc. Retirement Income Plan #16

Growmark, Inc. Retirement Income Plan #16

The Growmark, Inc. Retirement Income Plan #16 serves as the pension vehicle for Growmark, Inc., a Bloomington, Illinois-based agricultural cooperative owned by local FS member cooperatives across the US and Ontario. Growmark operates through its wholesale supply businesses in crop nutrients, fuels, lubricants, and grain marketing, generating durable cash flows that underpin the plan's contribution base. The cooperative's roots trace to the 1920s, and the retirement plan itself reflects the long-term liability structure typical of a mature, asset-intensive sponsor. Growmark is a prominent member of the International Co-operative Alliance Global 300 and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. The plan's investment posture centers on buyout strategies, supplemented by direct real estate holdings in mixed-use US properties. Public records indicate the plan has historically been a limited partner in private equity funds. One durable off-balance-sheet asset is Growmark's pre-IPO ownership position in CF Industries Holdings, Inc., a global nitrogen fertilizer producer that went public in 2005. The cooperative maintains a significant ongoing commercial relationship with CF Industries through a joint venture, CF Industries Logistics, LLC, reinforcing the pension plan's exposure to the agricultural inputs sector. The plan holds investments in registered investment companies as well. The Illinois Agricultural Association, a related entity within the Illinois Farm Bureau system, is a co-investor in similar group retirement structures serving the state's agricultural community. This web of interlocking cooperative entities creates a stable, if opaque, pool of institutional capital tied to the farm economy. The plan does not disclose AUM or total deployment outside of regulatory filings, and its operational decision-making structure remains private. What distinguishes this plan is its embedded relationship with a publicly traded commodity player through a legacy pre-IPO stake. Most corporate pension plans hold public equities; fewer carry a direct lineage to the founding ownership of a major North American fertilizer producer, coupled with an ongoing joint venture that ties pension economics to the agricultural supply chain the cooperative itself feeds.