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Aeros has become the leading provider of egg and poultry ERP software and flock data management solutions, thanks in large part to the strategic direction and best practices Cultura has shared with the now 45-year-old software company.

The company had multiple owners before it found its permanent home with Cultura in 2013. Agri Stats, the most recent owner of what was then called AgriSoft, was an agriculture benchmarking and management reporting company that wanted to divest its interest in the ag software company in order to refocus its energies on its core business.

As ag software is its core business, Cultura welcomed the opportunity to purchase and rebrand the company Aeros.

The management team was impressed with Cultura’s knowledge of the agricultural software space and was particularly enthusiastic about the software group’s decentralized approach to operating its businesses. The team appreciated that existing managers were encouraged to stay on post-acquisition to continue making strategic and operational decisions. Anthony Barton was on that leadership team.

“Aeros is still managed autonomously,” said Barton, who is now General Manager of Aeros. “My staff and I are still the decision-makers, but now we have the resources of a larger software company.”

Since the acquisition, Aeros has been able to improve its financial performance, sales and R&D processes, and customer engagement and satisfaction. Cultura has helped the team apply relevant benchmarks and metrics to evaluate and improve operational efficiencies based on its parent company’s experiences, having completed more than 500 hundred acquisitions to date.

“The education that Cultura has been able to provide cannot be underestimated. We had no insight into whether our activities and results were aligned with the rest of the industry, but now we have these metrics to help guide us,” Barton said.

Deciding to sell AgVision was a personal and strategic process for owners Jose and Shelley Laracuente. After growing their company for 24 years — with each year proving better than the previous, they knew the need to transition was close. Technology was changing more rapidly than ever, consolidation continued to disrupt the ag tech market, and they were nearing retirement.

Their business sense said it was time to join forces with a larger established and innovative software group that could help their mature 44-year-old agribusiness software company navigate the next phase of its journey. Their hearts reminded them the wrong transition could hurt their employees and customers.

Finding a trusted buyer was the key.

For more than a decade, Cultura had been calling the Laracuentes regularly to reaffirm its interest. The message was clear and consistent: Cultura has the resources and talent to invest, and it will take care of your customers and employees to continue your legacy.

When they made their firm decision to sell, Shelley and Jose reached out to Cultura. Within three months, the deal was sealed.

“Cultura has more than exceeded our expectations for honesty and integrity,” Shelley said. “It was important to us that AgVision stay an Iowa-based corporation, maintain its autonomy and entrepreneurial spirit, and be partnered with a respected group that could help it reach 100 years.”

While staying onboard was not a requirement of the sale, both Jose and Shelley proudly accepted the invitation to continue with AgVision, as well as work on projects for Cultura and its portfolio of software companies.

“Cultura has made AgVision stronger,” Jose said. “Over the years, AgVision has led the way: writing new code, converting legacy programs to new apps and platforms, and taking care of our customers. We are proud of what our team has accomplished over the years, and we know we will continue to achieve so much more with the added talent, financial resources and technical expertise that Cultura has to offer.”

Greenstone Systems is a prime example of how both strategic acquisition and organic growth can be fostered to make a great company even better.

Greenstone, known for many years as AGRIS, was Cultura’s first acquisition in the North American grain origination, processing, and automation software vertical. AGRIS, CINCH and oneWeigh are Greenstone’s core product lines.

The group bought the AGRIS Product Suite, which included oneWeigh, from John Deere in 2011. Two years later, it acquired E-Markets and CINCH software to compliment AGRIS and to capture the milling side of the grain industry. Over the years, Greenstone has blended, refined, and added to its core systems to become a leader in agribusiness ERP software, offering a wide range of innovative agribusiness tools, from commodity management to grain trading and patronage solutions.

“The first three-quarters of the life of AGRIS were spent building the product itself. Since then, we’ve been building a very robust integration engine,” said Dan Berg, a software developer and engineer at Greenstone, and who led the team that created AGRIS more than 40 years ago.

Greenstone’s strategy for continued success is three-fold: To invest prudently in core products, to enable customers to maximize value from their investments in Greenstone products, and to grow its portfolio of solutions through acquisitions and in-house innovation.

“Agribusinesses right now are really focused on providing better digital experiences for their customers,” General Manager Duey Yliniemi said. “Plus, they want to improve their operational efficiencies through automation with products like one Weigh, which can help them reduce labor costs and increase accuracy both at the scale and in the bin.”

Innovation is a mainstay at Greenstone. The team now is working on a new data warehousing platform and looks forward to developing integrations with predictive analysis tools, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Primetics was Cultura’s first software company purchase, taking place in 2008 in Chorley, UK. The company’s origins date back to a small garage startup in 1976, and through acquisitions and smart organic strategy, it has grown into the largest grain software company in the UK.

Developed specially to focus on all the software tools for grain trading, Primetics also offers ERP solutions for feed manufacturing, malting and milling, and has a seed production and processing software suite.

“We are proud to say that our solutions are used by over 70 percent of the regional grain companies in the UK; and over half of the grain harvested in the UK is traded through our systems,” said Leigh Roberts, General Manager of Primetics. “For seed, over 50 percent of the UK-certified serial seed is processed through our system.”

With Cultura’s support, one of the first things the company did after the acquisition was to take its seed solution to North America. There, the team has built a strong customer base including major seed companies in locations from Texas to Manitoba.

“Software companies that specialize in agribusiness are quite a niche, and at Primetics, with the backing of Cultura, we believe we are in a unique position to support our valued customers and others in the industry with robust software solutions to support their long-term goals and profitability,” Leigh said.

As a Cultura company, Primetics has full autonomy to run the business and has none of the red tape that often can be associated with being part of an international group.

“In addition, we have the opportunity to share best practices across Cultura and the wider Volaris group, a balance that we as a team enjoy and value,” Leigh said.

ExtendAg, founded in 1978, offers supply chain management software that connects produce growers, haulers, and processors. Its clients include some of the largest food companies across the globe. ExtendAg enables traceability from product origination to contracting. In addition, clients can easily manage quality control, make payments, and document grades. The solution connects to any ERP system, allowing clients to move at the pace of business.

Cultura acquired ExtendAg from John Deere in 2011. Deere decided to divest the software division to refocus on its core manufacturing businesses. In searching for a long-term home for ExtendAg, Deere’s leadership sought a potential acquirer that would maintain the company’s integrity while giving it the best chance for future growth. The leaders were drawn to Cultura’s acquisition philosophy.

“Deere wanted to make sure that ExtendAg would be able to grow and maintain customer satisfaction,” said General Manager Brad Leonard. “It’s been rewarding to be part of keeping that promise.”

Post-acquisition, ExtendAg transitioned from serving the fruit industry primarily to successfully onboarding many other produce commodity sectors. It has and continues to grow substantially, with access to best practices and centers of excellence from sister companies in AgTech and FoodTech.

When the founder of AMIC decided to sell, it was important to him to place his company in good hands, with people who would successfully manage the company so that he could retire with peace of mind.

That is why he and the other shareholders chose to sell the company to Cultura, a software group they trusted to care for the company founded in in 1979 in Kiel, Germany.

After the closing of the sale in 2017, Cultura directed financial and human resources to AMIC to reinforce AMIC’s role as a trusted ERP and blockchain technology partner for highly regulated agri-food companies. Hundreds of companies in predominantly German-speaking countries now use the AMIC suite for their accounting, processing and distribution of their products, and traceability and documentation requirements.

AMIC in 2017 formed a strategic partnership with a German company called tropextrakt, a leading specialty raw ingredient provider in the European beverage and dairy sectors. The company imports and exports exotic raw materials from and into 26 countries and has to trace those products throughout the supply chain. After installing and dropping big brand ERP solutions, tropextrakt switched to AMIC. That partnership has proven especially beneficial to both the software company and the customer.

“Transparency is the key for us, and it gains more importance every day,” tropextrakt Managing Director Ingo Kniepert said. “With AMIC software as an industry-specific solution, the flexibility was welcomed and the customer experience was quite positive. We are being well looked after.”

Solentra was created in 2016 as an extension of Cultura’s acquisition of the AGRIS product lines. The reason for forming the software and service consultancy was to devote specialized resources to the portfolio’s largest enterprise clients in North America and Europe.

The company has been quite effective in its mission. Leveraging a team of dedicated engagement managers and a wide range of technologies, Solentra delivers innovative vertical solutions to meet the demands of the largest grain originators, processors and distributors and creates significant value in the global supply chain.

A one-size-fits-all software solution simply is not enough for its clients.

“Solentra is the concierge to a strong and growing global group of ag tech software providers,” said Rich Reynertson, Cultura Chief Operating Officer. “Together, we strive for technical excellence and sustainable change, all in the name of our valued shareholders and clients.”

Leveraging innovation, Solentra shares the best practices and access to the global technology offered by the Cultura portfolio. Engagements are designed according to the unique characteristics of each client and fine-tuned by industry experts to meet the key business objectives. A high level of trust is one of the main reasons for Solentra’s success.

“Our people are our best asset,” said Dale Jefferson, Solentra General Manager. “We are proud to be part of Cultura. The Solentra team will continue to grow through innovation, creative thinking, and leveraging an expanding list of Cultura companies, keeping our sincere passion for agriculture at the forefront.”

Well into its fourth decade as the Irish market leader for ag-tech ERP systems, CORE Technology continues to innovate across three distinct verticals: dairy, mill and feed, and agri-trading. With 70 percent of its customer base consisting of exporters and competitors in global food markets, CORE is clear on its essential mission to provide premier solutions and services.

CORE’s dairy management software supports large-scale dairies with a seamless flow of information from their business to the customer, with farmer communication at the center. CORE’s mill and feed management software is designed for enterprise level customers, offering solutions for sales, orders, batches, grain procurement/processing, dispatching, labelling, data analytics and complete mill accounting. CORE Retail software is focused on accounting and e-commerce for agri-trading and retail/wholesale hardware.

“CORE Tech’s innovation focuses on what our customers need today and tomorrow,” General Manager Mairead Cosgrave said. “We are continuously investing in customer-driven mobile apps which drive improved communication and efficiency for our customers.”

The company’s suite of cloud-enabled products includes apps offering real-time data for dairy farmers to analyze their dairy performance; sales order modules; proof of delivery notices with time-stamped photos and signatures; and e-commerce solutions including customer loyalty programs and a suite of integrated credit card solutions for their agri-trading customers.

Joining the Cultura family in 2015 effectively accelerated CORE’s innovation drive. Cultura provided the capital and talent to advance its growth organically as well as through acquisitions.

“Our challenge as a business is to continue to uphold the market-leading legacy which we inherited upon acquisition,” Cosgrave said. “Team CORE believes that by committing to the Cultura best practices business model, by challenging ourselves to be creative, and by fostering innovation in everything we do, we can continue our journey.”