s the 21st century dawned, Lange-Stegmann once again took the time to envision their future business.

As they looked around, the owners and managers couldn’t help but be proud. The fortuitous vision of the company’s founders was still paying off. Many company strengths were in evidence:

• their St. Louis location is the northernmost port on the Mississippi that is lock-free and open year round;
• 100,000 square feet of covered storage;
• a site of approximately 40 acres;
• unrivalled access by rail, road and river to markets throughout North America and around the world;
• an environmental stewardship and safety record envied throughout the industry;
• liquid storage of 15,000 tons and dry granular storage of about 80,000 tons with substantial outdoor storage for suitable products;
• second largest rail yard in St. Louis, stretching three miles.

Another of Lange-Stegmann’s core strengths is people. Sometimes overlooked in a business where success is measured in the millions of tons, the strength of personal relationships within the company and between Lange-Stegmann staff and customers is vital.

As Lange-Stegmann celebrated the turn of the millennium, it also celebrated the tenure of many employees who had been with the company for 20-30 years, some even longer. Lange-Stegmann Company attracts loyal, long-term, dedicated employees by offering challenging opportunities, a good work environment, and training to nurture personal development of the employee. The Stegmann philosophy has been “Hire the right person, and get out of their way!”

If contentment were among the corporate values, it certainly would have been justified in 2000. But no, the watchwords remained: Envision…Diversify…Grow.

They saw more opportunity and began to shift the focus of the business. While maintaining its position as a huge yet nimble-footed supplier of top quality fertilizer, Lange-Stegmann divested some business segments, and invested in others.

While maintaining its commodity business, Lange-Stegmann started down another, but much different, path in 2000. Much less dependent on volume, this path leads directly to value.