Agfinity HQ to return to Eaton roots

EATON — One of Eaton’s oldest businesses is headed back to town.

Agfinity, Colorado’s largest agriculture cooperative, will officially open the doors to its new corporate headquarters at the corner of Collins Avenue and U.S. Highway 85 this year. 

The cooperative, which has been in Eaton for almost 120 years, owns 12 properties in town and essentially commands the town’s core with its four-pronged business model that includes its divisions in agronomy, feed and grain, energy, and retail. Its headquarters, however, has spent the last five years in east Loveland.

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“We acquired that corner knowing it just made sense to add to the portfolio of contiguous properties. We wanted to be a very present and visible part of the community,” said Chief Operating Officer Mike Richey. “That corner allows everyone who comes there to know that Agfinity will be there for the long haul, and it gives our people quick access to many of our facilities.”

Agfinity has been leasing space for its headquarters in Loveland since 2019, having determined then that the company’s original building on the feed mill property along U.S. 85 had outlived itself and was no longer functional for its 20-plus member corporate staff. That building has since been removed. The new building will be able to house upward of 25 staff members, including its corporate leadership, IT, safety and shared services teams. The cooperative has roughly 200 employees, with 90% working outside of the corporate offices.

The cooperative is the largest provider of animal feed to Northern Colorado’s dairies and even provides animal feed to Colorado’s and Wyoming’s zoos. Its fuel division provides propane to homes, and refined fuels and lubricants to farming and commercial operations. The company also helps farmers acquire and sell grains. The cooperative has five convenience stores — two in Greeley, and one each in Eaton, Brighton and Mead, in addition to an Ace Hardware store in Brighton and a Town & Country store in which it sells feed and fertilizers. Its agronomy division provides fertilizers and protectants to farmland. 

The company’s headquarters is under construction now, taking the place of what used to be a fast-food chain across from the intersection from Agfinity’s Eaton convenience store. The planned 5,500-square-foot, single-story building will be Agfinity’s chance to recommit to the area, Richey said. The original building was razed before construction.

“The actual economic center of people and facilities that generate the revenue for our cooperative are all within a 10-mile radius of Eaton,” Richey said. “This is reiterating to our cooperative as a whole and to people who use our services, that we’re putting our corporate headquarters back in the heart of the ag world, and that’s Weld County. We’ve been absent for five years, and we’re going right back to being where we call our community and home.”

Richey said the cooperative purchased the new corner lot in Eaton in 2023. The fast-food chain had been out of business for a while, and there was no continued fast-food interest in the lot. Agifinity already owns much of the land in that general area, including the land that houses Scooter’s Coffee and Heritage Market. Its feed mill is just east of U.S. 85 about a block north of its new corner. Richey said the intent is to be a flagship building for the town, “echo the architectural feel of buildings around it, and bring in elements of the bank and Heritage Market, with the same pitched roof with exposed timbers.”

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Agfinity owns the land on which a Bank of Colorado branch operates. Agfinity owns nearby property, but not the bank property. BizWest regrets the error.