CARRINGTON, N.D. (AP) — Managers at Dakota Growers Pasta Co. in Carrington say they don't expect many changes under the company's pending new ownership.
St. Louis-based cereal maker Post Holdings Inc. announced this week that it's buying Dakota Growers from Viterra Inc. for $370 million to expand its food offerings. Canadian agribusiness giant Viterra is owned by Glencore International PLC, a commodity supplier based in Switzerland. Post expects to complete the deal in January.
"What Post has told us is that we will continue to operate quite independently from them," Dakota Growers vice president and general manager Ed Irion told The Jamestown Sun.
Dakota Growers, which also has production capabilities in New Hope, Minn., will keep all of its employees and will continue producing the same pasta, according to Irion.
"It really is business as usual," he said.
Dakota Growers started as a farmer-owned cooperative in the early 1990s. In 2002 it became a corporation with many of the same farmer shareholders. The corporation was sold to Viterra in 2010.
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Information from: The Jamestown Sun, http://www.jamestownsun.com