PRESQUE ISLE – Maine Potato Growers, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Pierre Patenaude announced that MPG had a strong fiscal year 2009 during their 77th annual meeting held Oct. 22 at the Northeastland Hotel.
“The positive results in 2009 were supported by the implementation of a number of improvement initiatives, along with strong performances from the Crops Services and Energy Divisions,” said Patenaude.
MPG remains focused on making improvements to strengthen its financial position.
“By adopting a culture of continuous improvement we will continue to succeed in this difficult economic time and position MPG to weather similar economic downturns in the future,” he said.
Patenaude indicated that they are developing plans for more improvement changes in the future.
“As we continue to implement improvement initiatives, we will strengthen MPG, allowing us to efficiently provide value products, services and marketing to all of our customers,” said Patenaude.
Chairman Greg Smith announced after a vote by members present and by proxy that Bruce Buck of Mapleton was re-elected as a director to a three-year term and that Darrell McCrum of Mars Hill and Dominic LaJoie of Van Buren were elected as new directors also for three-year terms. Others currently serving on the board of directors are Greg Smith, chairman, Presque Isle; Ned Berce, vice chairman, St. Agatha; Jeff Smith, Mapleton; Keith Doyen, Mapleton; Andrew McGlinn, Presque Isle; and Ward McLaughlin, Mars Hill.
Smith also took the opportunity to thank outgoing directors Daniel Labrie of St. Agatha and Murray Blackstone of Caribou for their dedication, support and guidance throughout the years. Labrie served on the MPG board since 1997 while Blackstone served since 2003.
An amendment to the by-laws allowing for the election of a non-member director to the board of the cooperative was also voted on and passed by the membership.
Smith closed the meeting by thanking the board of directors, the MPG membership and all of the cooperative’s customers for their continued support and patronage throughout the year.
MPG is a diversified agricultural supply and marketing cooperative based in Presque Isle and has served the needs of Maine’s agricultural and resource based industries and its surrounding communities since 1932. Marketing division activities consist primarily of the purchase and resale of potatoes and grain. Supply division activities consist primarily of sales of agricultural supplies and services, crop inputs and services, farm equipment and maintenance, petroleum products and retail hardware sales.
