Industry Profile
Sukup Europe: Expansion from Iowa, US to Denmark, Europe
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n 2015, Sheffield, Iowa based company Sukup Manufacturing Co. consolidated its operations with the acquisition of Danish company Dan-Corn A/S, and now can enjoy an increased and profitable global market share. Milling & Grain recently visited their new Danish operation to discover why this is a landmark event for both companies and the wider industry. “We are looking forward to continued growth with DanCorn and the expanding opportunities in protecting grain and increasing profit for farmers,” commented Charles Sukup, President of Sukup Manufacturing Co. Amongst their portfolio of engineering and manufacturing, Sukup Manufacturing Co. can take pride in being one of the top grain bin companies in the US. They have expanded at a higher rate than their competitors, growing over eight times since 2002, and the secret of its success are strong core values. The company is family owned, with three generations involved in all aspects of the business for over 50 years. A glance at Sukup’s innovative catalogue is impressive. For example, they have produced AutoCAD/Google Sketchup designs for the planning of new facilities and then set these onto Google Earth. This brings many improvements for customers as they can see live how the plans will look. There is also a strong history of servicing, which makes them a reliable and capable company, and inspires customer trust. At the last count, Sukup were responsible for 3,300 silo sites around Europe. Sukup manufacture and maintain among many product also drying bins. They are air dispersed which means they benefit from more efficiency with special floor design and vertical lifting augers (stirring system). They are also responsible for an innovative Vacuum cooling system, used on there mobile- stack- and tower-dryers. Sukup Europe 86 | April 2017 - Milling and Grain
have unified their facility to a warehouses and assembly workshops. This gives not just “pluck and play” supply but also all-round supply from there 11.000 m² large warehouse facility. With special attention afforded to their products during the project handling and construction process, they utilize safety approved erection teams to ensure everything works as expected for the costumer.Indeed, Sukup products are sold throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in over 80 foreign countries. The company has also taken time to give back to those in need. Following Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Sukup donated over 200 ‘Safe T Home’ grain bins to Haiti as a means of temporary housing and shelter. Emily Schmitt, corporate counsel and third generation Sukup family member said, “In this day and age where you usually have to dig through financial disclosures to see where your charitable contributions are going, it is refreshing to know that our Safe T Homes and GoServ Global are truly saving lives. It only encourages us to further expand our efforts, and next time we hope it can save even more.” DanCorn were the distributor of Sukup products in Europe and is located in Hedensted, Denmark. This facilitated and encouraged the merger as Managing Director, Jens Erik Iversen commented, “We represent Sukup on the European market and therefore it is quite natural that we have a name change.” The company changed its legal name to Sukup Europe A/S on the 1st November 2015, and everything went smoothly. The DanCorn-Sukup Europe relationship started in the 1990’s when the Danish company began importing driers and silos from America and augers from Canada. The deal for an undisclosed amount initiated a huge positive change for Dancorn and enabled them to share knowledge and patents in addition to a much larger business opportunity. Jens Erik Iversen went on further to say, “The operation and life of the organization will run largely unchanged. We continue to be a full-line supplier of equipment for grain storage, handling and drying and we will operate in the same way as before and support our large European dealer network.” The Danish acquisition has also helped native companies expand their operations. Upon Milling and Grain’s visit to Denmark, we also