What is an agricultural cooperative?
“An agricultural cooperative is an association of growers who voluntarily
organize to serve themselves through their own business on a non-profit
basis. A primary objective is to improve their economic well-being through
joint marketing of their crops in consumer preferred, value added form.”
What
are the differences between a cooperative and a corporation?
1. The
best cooperatives provide a reliable and secure market to members, recognizing
that this is of utmost importance to them.
2. A
cooperative tries to return to members the best possible price for their
products, whereas a corporation tries to buy its raw product at the
lowest possible price. The best cooperatives regularly outperform
the average of alternative markets.
3. Cooperative
members receive all savings over the cost of doing business. The cooperative owes its allegiance to member-growers, who own the
business. Corporations owe allegiance
to shareholders, who typically do not provide its raw products.
4. Cooperatives are democratically
organized and operated. Members
have a voice in the business through their elected leaders.
5. Cooperative members expect
and receive fair and impartial treatment.
They also develop pride in ownership and a feeling of belonging.
Who can become a member of National Grape Cooperative?
Any person, partnership, corporation or association who
is an actual producer of Concord or Niagara grapes in any territory
in which the Cooperative does business is eligible to become a member.
How
do I apply for membership?
Any eligible person, partnership, corporation or association interested
in becoming a member must execute an application for membership. Attaining
membership however, is not automatic. The Cooperative is free to accept
some into membership and reject others as it sees fit. The determination
being made based on the well-being of the Cooperative, the responsibilities
of Cooperative membership and other elements which create and maintain
a successful cooperative. If the application is accepted the interested
party is granted all rights and privileges of membership.
Is
there any up front investment required of National members?
No, the member’s investment in National is accomplished through the
retention of a portion of each member’s earnings each year. All retained
earnings are returned to the grower after membership ceases.
Is it possible for some one who is not a grape
grower to invest in National Grape or Welch’s?
No, not directly. You may, however, purchase Allocation Credits from
a National Grape patron as more fully described below.
National Grape is a non-stock agricultural cooperative. As a cooperative,
National Grape operates on a cost basis. The active patrons of National
Grape furnish capital to the organization through the retention of a
portion of their earnings each year. Currently, at least 80% of the
annual retention is in the form of Allocation Credits.
Allocation Credits are instruments issued in annual series which mature
20 years following issuance. Allocation Credits are non-interest bearing;
non-dividend bearing and non-voting. It has been National Grape's practice
to call each series for redemption, at a price equal to 100% of its
aggregate principal amount, approximately six years after the date of
issue. The decision to continue this practice is reviewed annually by
National Grape's Board of Directors.
A market for the Allocation Credits is made by the following brokers
and current bid price quotations are available from them. Please contact
a broker listed below for up to date information. Currently the brokers
are:
| Broker |
|
| Advest, Inc. |
|
|
80
Professional Pkwy.
P.O.
Box 847
Lockport, NY 14095
Contact
Karen Polanski
(716) 433-3888 (Collect)
(800) 488-4494
|
|
| |
|
| Broker |
|
| Moors
& Cabot, Inc |
|
Lockport
Professional Pk.
744 Davison Road
Lockport, NY 14094
Contact
Rhodes C. Palmer &
Marsha Parisi
(716) 434-6777
(888) 503-4399 (Toll Free) |
|
| |
|
| Broker |
|
| Trubee,
Collins&Co., Inc. |
|
1350
One M&T Plaza
Buffalo, NY 14203
Contact
Michael F. Sheets
(716) 849-1475
(800) 836-4050
|
|
I would like to review your current
Annual Report. Is one available?
Yes, please contact us at the address below or simply e-mail
us your request. We'll be happy to send you a copy. You may also download a copy of our annual report from this webaite. Reports are available in Adobe Acrobat format on our Contact Us page.
westfield
general office
National Grape
2 South Portage Street
Westfield, New York 14787
716-326-5200
email
General Inquiries: nationalinfo@welchs.com
You can also view the report online or download a copy to your
hard drive by clicking on the appropriate link below. The full
color document may take several minutes to view in your browser.
A smaller compressed version (for faster downloads) requiring
"Win Zip" is also available below.
view
the 2000 Annual
Report
(PDF Format 1,007 KB)
view the 1999 Annual
Report
(PDF Format 875 KB)
download the 2000 2000
Annual Report (WinZipped-PDF
File-657 KB)
download the 1999 1999
Annual Report (WinZipped-PDF
File-574 KB)
technical
note:
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|
