August 31st marked the end to GROWMARK’s fiscal year. To mark the year end members from across the Midwest attended the 85th GROWMARK Annual Meeting in Chicago. The meeting didn’t just consist of business reports and elections, laughter seemed to be a key element throughout the event. Comedian Jeanne Robertson was the highlight of the banquet Thursday evening and keynote speaker Tom Bodett kept the crowd rolling as well.

It was a busy event for GROWMARK CEO Jeff Solberg who had to run off before I could interview him, but our friend and colleague Pam Fretwell of Farm Journal Media was happy to share her interview with us. Jeff was very pleased to be able to announce this year’s financial results for GROWMARK, which were very close to last year’s record.

“We continue to grow. We’re very happy with the growth and success we have had. You can have growth without success, but in the GROWMARK system in the last decade or more we have had significant growth, but significant success that has come along with that. The results we produced this year are very close to 10 billion in sales, that’s a significant increase of the past decade. We have changed our business and the success that has come with that is showing up this year. This has been the second best year of pre-tax income in our history.”

Listen to Pam’s interview with Jeff here: Interview with Jeff Solberg

You can find photos from the event here:2012 GROWMARK Annual Meeting