Phoenix, Arizona – Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc. held a celebratory groundbreaking to mark the commencement of construction on a new liquid fertilizer facility in Defiance, Ohio.
The new 50,000-square-foot production facility will occupy 50 acres and is set to become operational in 2024. The facility will service the Eastern Great Lakes Region through its distribution partners and will include terminal loadouts for rail cars and tanker trucks.
Tessenderlo Kerley will produce its leading liquid sulfur-based crop nutrition brands like Thio-Sul, KTS and K-Row 23, as well as sulfite chemistries for the industrial market.
“Nurturing crop life is at the forefront of all that we do,” said Russell Sides, Executive Vice President, Tessenderlo Kerley. “This facility creates more certainty in the region by ensuring farmers have access to the nutrients they need for their crops to thrive.”
"It's essential for us as a distributor to have good supply partners such as Tessenderlo Kerley," said Josh Vollmar, director of commodities and risk for The Andersons. "Having a partner that's closer to our ultimate end-user is very important to us."
The facility reaffirms Tessenderlo Kerley’s support of the region with its expert team of Crop Vitality Agronomists and Specialists. This team shares more than 100 years of knowledge in crop fertility and soil nutrition. It is dedicated to providing detailed solutions for today’s most complex nutrient management systems.
“We look forward to joining the Defiance, Ohio, community and providing stewardship to the farmers in the region,” Sides said. “It is important that we all work together to grow the crops required for our country to flourish.”
"The backbone of this community (Defiance, OH) has always been on the manufacturing side of things, and what we've tried to do is diversity our local economy," said Defiance Mayor Michael McCann. "We knew Tessenderlo Kerley wanted to establish in this part of the country. They're spectacular people to work with, very friendly, very open and very honest, and I appreciate that. There's a lot of community pride here, and this is just one more thing that we're going to be proud of."
For more information visit www.tkinet.com.