‘We are here to stay; we are here to grow’

Genex plans expansion, job growth with merger complete
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

SHAWANO — The Cooperative Resources International logo is disappearing from the area, but that does not mean the company that has made a name for itself in cattle genetics is packing up and moving the herd out of town — quite the contrary.

Genex, which started in Shawano in 1940 as the Tri-County Breeders Association and has gone through multiple name changes in 80 years, will still be operating in Shawano and the town of Richmond, and future expansion and improvement are in the works, along with more jobs.

Genex invited community leaders to a tour of some of its facilities Tuesday to show some of the improvements being made, as well as how far it has come in recent years.

Many of the bulls that make up Genex’s herd are housed at a facility in the Stony Hill area of the town of Richmond. There is currently a $1 million building project that will construct new semen collection rooms and a prep laboratory for initial processing.

“We’re going to be just looking at the semen, evaluating it and seeing if it can continue to be processed at the main lab in Shawano,” said Brian Preder, production site manager.

The design is meant to be efficient so that Genex is wasting neither time nor space to collect semen samples and start them through the process, Preder said. He noted that the collection parlor is expected to hold up to 30 bulls at a time to allow for easy collection, and there are two identical breezeways that help to easily move bulls from their barn stalls to the parlor itself for daily collections.

The project is expected to bring in at least four full-time jobs to the Stony Hill facility, with 30 new employees expected to be added to the existing 200-employee base for Genex at all of its Shawano County facilities, and is part of a $10 million construction plan for Genex over the next three years.

“We looked at the future and thought, ‘What do we all need?’” said Huub te Plate, Genex chief executive officer. “We will be upgrading barns. Many of these barns were built for all mature bulls. Now, we produce semen on much younger bulls, so there is a lot of renovations going on.”

However, there is a bonus for folks in the town of Richmond. In order to make the Stony Hill facility viable in the modern technological area, a high-speed internet fiberoptic cable had to be laid down. As a result, town residents will benefit from faster internet in an area known for poor cyberspace reception.

Many of the changes are expected to modernize facilities that are 30 years old or more. It will also increase Genex’s bull capacity and improve animal welfare.

Cooperative Resources International merged in October 2018 with Koepon Holding BV in the Netherlands, and the CRI headquarters became the headquarters for Genex, which had been the parent company.

“Koepon was in the same business we were in, genetics marketing,” te Plate said. “CRI and Koepon were combined and decided to keep all of the marketing arms but combine background functions. We went through a fair amount of consolidation, and now we’re ready to put that behind us and grow again.”

Now, the holding company is Urus, which is on the signs for the Fellman Center distribution building on East Elizabeth Street in Shawano. That facility has since expanded to become the largest bovine semen distribution center in the world, according to te Plate, doing business with about 100 countries.

“All of that semen comes from the shop here,” te Plate said.

Genex moved into its current processing facility in 2013, taking up a small portion of the building, according to Warren Raddatz, Urus director of distribution. Since then, it has doubled in size to accommodate the demand.

“We have up to 7 million units of semen stored on this site alone,” Raddatz said. “We do all the international shipping, all the domestic shipping out of this location.”

Genex accounts for about 40% of the Urus organization, he added, with about 30 million units of semen marketed annually, which equates to about one insemination every second of the day.

“That’s a pretty big deal,” te Plate said.

The Stony Hill facility and another facility just west of the Wolf River are now known as Peak Production Centers. Combined, they make one of the five largest bovine semen collection locations worldwide, according to te Plate, and Genex plans to make it event bigger.

“We are here to stay,” te Plate said. “We are here to grow.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com