Press Releases

The Andersons, Inc. today announced it has become an investor in Rooster.com(SM), agriculture's leading e-business network. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Rooster.com, an independent company headquartered in Bloomington, Minn., is an online marketplace which offers dealers, distributors and elevators a simple, turnkey approach to support traditional business relationships online, with all the advantages of being in a high-traffic electronic agricultural marketplace. Other investors are Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives, Cargill, DuPont, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Corporation, IMC Global, and Louis Dreyfus Group.

Mike Anderson, president and chief executive officer of The Andersons, Inc., said investment in Rooster.com reflects the company's desire to play a major role in the development of e-commerce in U.S. agriculture. Pointing out that The Andersons has a history of innovation, Anderson added, "We want to be part of this exciting, emerging field, but even more importantly we want to be among the leaders in shaping the electronic marketplace for agribusiness."

He said that, based on The Andersons' analysis of various web-based offerings, "We believe Rooster.com is positioned to be the premiere agricultural e-business model. This investment in combination with other internal web-based initiatives will compliment our traditional relationship approach to maximize value for our customers and shareholders."

The Andersons' leadership in new technologies includes the Crop Revenue Profiler™ software program, an analytical tool that was developed by the company to help farmers make the increasingly complex decisions that are required to run a successful business. The program provides a multi-page, detailed analysis of up to 209 different price/yield outcomes based on combinations of marketing plans and six different crop insurance policy types. Farmers enter individual variables including number of acres, production history, cost of production, and government subsidies to see a series of three-dimensional graphs showing how the varying prices and yields affect profitability.

The Andersons this year established The Andersons Ag Software, Inc. to market the Crop Revenue Profiler software program. The subsidiary recently has entered into licensing agreements with American Agrisurance and Utterback Marketing Services, Inc. for use of the software program.

The Andersons, Inc. is a respected leader and prominent regional player in grain merchandising. Its strong position in this basic business has allowed the company to diversify into other agribusiness operations, railcar leasing, turf care product manufacturing and distribution, and general merchandise retailing. The company has been in operation since 1947. The Andersons, Inc. is located on the Internet at http://www.andersonsinc.com/

This release contains forward-looking statements, including statements with respect to anticipated revenues, adequacy of cash flows and profitability. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, without limitation, economic, weather and regulatory conditions, competition and the risk factors set forth from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE: The Andersons, Inc.