‘Trending in right direction’

As shareholder meeting nears, Co-op leaders  assess progress

Nearly 11 months have passed since Big Horn Co-op announced that it would be closing its retail stores in Greybull, Basin, Buffalo, Powell and Worland as part of a restructuring to continue meeting the energy and agronomy needs of its customers.

At the time, the cooperative with more than 1,100 shareholders across central and northern Wyoming was deep in the red and tracking toward a $1.9 million loss for the year. The year before, it lost more than $6 million.

The outlook is better now, say Jim Gauker, who has been the CEO and CFO since January, and Tim Flitner, a member of the co-op’s eight-person board of directors.

“I did two budgets (for this year) — the conservative one where we’d make about $100,000 and the more aggressive one that I think we’ll hit where we’d make about $400,000,” Gauker said.  “If we do, that would be like a $2.3 million improvement from the prior year. 

“We’re definitely trending in the right direction.”

While the cooperative is no longer on the verge of going under, it’s also not prepared to resume the mailing of patronage checks or allow customers nearing retirement to pull their equity, Gauker said. 

He and Flitner expect that to be a hot topic at the co-op’s annual shareholder meeting at noon Wednesday, Nov. 19 at the Greybull Elks Lodge.

To encourage attendance at that gathering, the two men recently sat down to discuss the co-op’s progress since the beginning of the year, plans for its remaining properties and how long it might take before shareholders start reaping the rewards of their loyalty.

Neither Flitner nor Gauker believe the co-op made a mistake by closing its retail locations.

“Even though it was unpopular, it was the right decision,” Flitner said.

In many of the communities that lost stores, customers have simply migrated to privately-run businesses such as Ace, True Value and Bomgaar’s, Flitner said. 

“It’s in our best interest to stay the hell out of the retail business — that’s a private sector thing, it’s competitive, tough and you’ve got to have a lot of buying power. A few part-time board members aren’t going to do a good job of managing that.”

Gauker said the co-op’s long-range plan is to sell its corporate headquarters near the intersection of Highway 310 and U.S. Highway 14-16-20 and relocate to the old Greybull hardware store.

In all, Gauker said the co-op currently has 41 full-time employees, compared to about 59 a year ago at this time. Of those 41, only about a half dozen work at the corporate office.

As for the other locations, Gauker said the co-op has a good thing going with MTR Ranch Supply, which has purchased its facilities in Buffalo and is leasing its location in Basin.

The co-op still operates a fertilizer plant at its agronomy site in Basin.

In Worland, the co-op sold its tire store and is in the process of selling its farm store to the Wyoming Department of Transportation, with both parties expecting to close on or around Nov. 6.

“We’ll be married to that C-store down there for awhile,” Gauker said, “but it’s cash flowing and doing well.”

By offering more competitive prices, the co-op sold more fuel in September than it did the same month of 2024, Gauker said, calling it a significant milestone.

“We are at market or a couple cents below what your Blair’s and Maverik’s are doing,” he said. “The reason we can do it now is because we’re saving 30 to 40 cents on how we purchase fuel.  That’s a big deal.  In the past, my predecessors wanted to price us 10 to 20 cents above market, just to make up for their purchasing decisions.

“We’re still not the market leaders, but if they’re at $3, we want to be at $3 or $2.98 because what I don’t want to do is get in a price war with these  people. They are much bigger than us. We will not win that game.”

As for the current year budget and his projections, Gauker said, “I’m not going to let us make more than $100,000 or $200,000.  If we make more than that, we’ll take some of it back against inventory reserve because I have feeling when we settle up all these stores that have closed, we’re going to come up short with inventory. If we have to liquidate, I know we won’t get our cost out of it so I’m going to start building that reserve.”

Patronage/equity

Gauker and Flitner say they believe the co-op’s board and leadership have rebuilt some of the shareholders’ trust that was lost in recent years, but a lot of work remains.

“Trust is something that takes years to build, but you can wreck it and that’s what happened,” Flitner said. “We’ve lost some clients who are still stinging from it, for one reason or another.

“But now when I talk to people, their attitudes are better. Instead of saying they’d never going back, they’re at least open to considering it, so I definitely think we’re gaining in that area.”

Gauker acknowledged that public sentiment probably won’t move significantly until the co-op is in a far better place financially than it is today.

“I know there are a few out there who say, since you can’t pay patronage now, I’m not doing business with the co-op,” he said. “If everyone had that attitude, no one would get their equity because we’d be out of business.

“It’s like the adage of the bulldog sticking its head through the fence; he has the bone, but can get his head back through.  There are certain people who can’t let go of that bone.”

Flitner said board members could be on the hook personally if they were to approve patronage checks and that decision damaged the cooperative.  “I’m not putting my private business at risk to pay anybody’s equity right now,” he said. “Besides, we paid those out long after they should have and doing so didn’t help our financial situation one bit.”

As for those already among or soon to join the ranks of the retired, Gauker said the cooperative is “at least three to five years,” best case, from being able to release equity stakes.

“If you’d have told me timeline that 12 months ago,” Flitner said, “I’d have said, ‘No way, we’ll be lucky to be alive in three to five years.’ It’s substantially better than that now, thanks to Jim.  But when I came on board, I can’t even begin to describe how bleak our financial picture was — and it was going in the wrong direction.”                                                                 

Meeting

Among the items on the agenda for the annual meeting is the election of three board members.  Those seats are now held by Chris Bullinger, who represents District 5; Luke Foss, who represents District 6, and Bret Stutzman, who holds an at-large spot.  Nominations are open.

The three who are elected at the annual meeting will join Peter Kukowski, Tyler Foxworthy, Angie Wambeke, Jimmy Seckman and Flitner as the board moves into 2026.

“We really need to have a quorum (at the annual meeting) because there’s a lot to discuss,” said Flitner. “We need to look at the fundamental way that we’re doing business because the formula we’ve got now isn’t working.”

Flitner said he’d personally like to see discussion on the way the board conducts its business, how shareholders fill seats and even if it’s truly necessary to have a board of eight.

“All that needs to be looked at,” he said, adding, “There’s plenty of blame to go around for how we got here, but if we can’t have enough members attend to make changes, that’s a capital D to dooming ourselves.”