Rockingham Cooperative To Celebrate 100 Years
March 25, 2020
By JESSICA WETZLER
Daily News-Record 3/23/20
When C.V. Smith became the first employee and general manager of the Rockingham Cooperative Farm Bureau, now Rockingham Cooperative, operations of the company were vastly different than today.
He worked from a borrowed desk, took out personal loans and helped save members hundreds of dollars.
It was what started then with only two employees, Smith and Elmer B. Kaylor, and annual revenue of $17,495 that has led the Rockingham Cooperative to celebrate nearly 100 years in business as a retail farm and consumer products store in six counties.
“Their decisions made were the most important,” said Adam Ford, marketing and social media specialist for the Rockingham Cooperative. “It was pretty impressive.”
Ford has been with the cooperative for more than two years, working on events for stores and coordinating media.
When Ford was just a year into the position, he spoke with CEO Norman Wenger regarding ideas he had for the cooperative’s 100th anniversary in 2021. In January 2019, Ford formed a committee of members from all locations and employment levels to get ideas on how to celebrate not only the cooperative, but the agriculture industry.
“I wanted to make a book,” he said. “I had never seen the history shared, and we have a decent amount of archives that show the change throughout the years.”
Ford said he wanted to tell the stories of the founders, Smith and Kaylor, and how the cooperative worked with community organizations, along with telling the stories of all the locations the cooperative has acquired.
“Their history is just as important as our history,” he said.
Rockingham Cooperative was founded on Oct. 29, 1921, and started as part of the Farm Bureau movement. Within its first year in business, the cooperative gained 268 members and has since grown to more than 5,000, according to Ford.
For the first 50 years in operation, Ford said, it was centered around Smith and Kaylor, who only worked on a part-time basis.
“Those two provided leadership in the early years,” Ford said.
In his search for history, Ford came across a term paper written by a Don Burkholder, who attended Eastern Mennonite University in the 1960s.
“It was a true treasure,” Ford said. “He provided his personal insight, and it has been a very unique experience to look through these archives.”
While the Rockingham Cooperative has seen many changes over its nearly 100 years, one thing that has remained the same is the cooperative’s ability to adapt to the area and time it is operating in.
Ford said that within the first several years of the cooperative being open, the business found its niche in the poultry market. Into the late 1940s, the cooperative began filling shelves in Krogers across Virginia with eggs. In the present day, there are stronger ties to the dairy industry.
“As the market changed, we made changes to adapt to it,” Ford said.
The ability to adapt led Rockingham Cooperative from being a less than $20,000 business to a $100 million company.
“ We are tied to the agriculture industry here in Rockingham County the most because it is still the largest industry in Virginia and to provide goods and services to members and anyone else and letting any customer take advantage of savings is a big impact,” Ford said. “We do business in five to six different states, so the impact expands beyond Rockingham County.”
Ford said the goal is to provide savings on products and services. Anyone who would like to contribute a story to be included in the book can contact Ford at 540-437-2562.
“I am always looking for stories, and the more I hear is only going to help,” he said.
Daily News-Record 3/23/20
When C.V. Smith became the first employee and general manager of the Rockingham Cooperative Farm Bureau, now Rockingham Cooperative, operations of the company were vastly different than today.
He worked from a borrowed desk, took out personal loans and helped save members hundreds of dollars.
It was what started then with only two employees, Smith and Elmer B. Kaylor, and annual revenue of $17,495 that has led the Rockingham Cooperative to celebrate nearly 100 years in business as a retail farm and consumer products store in six counties.
“Their decisions made were the most important,” said Adam Ford, marketing and social media specialist for the Rockingham Cooperative. “It was pretty impressive.”
Ford has been with the cooperative for more than two years, working on events for stores and coordinating media.
When Ford was just a year into the position, he spoke with CEO Norman Wenger regarding ideas he had for the cooperative’s 100th anniversary in 2021. In January 2019, Ford formed a committee of members from all locations and employment levels to get ideas on how to celebrate not only the cooperative, but the agriculture industry.
“I wanted to make a book,” he said. “I had never seen the history shared, and we have a decent amount of archives that show the change throughout the years.”
Ford said he wanted to tell the stories of the founders, Smith and Kaylor, and how the cooperative worked with community organizations, along with telling the stories of all the locations the cooperative has acquired.
“Their history is just as important as our history,” he said.
Rockingham Cooperative was founded on Oct. 29, 1921, and started as part of the Farm Bureau movement. Within its first year in business, the cooperative gained 268 members and has since grown to more than 5,000, according to Ford.
For the first 50 years in operation, Ford said, it was centered around Smith and Kaylor, who only worked on a part-time basis.
“Those two provided leadership in the early years,” Ford said.
In his search for history, Ford came across a term paper written by a Don Burkholder, who attended Eastern Mennonite University in the 1960s.
“It was a true treasure,” Ford said. “He provided his personal insight, and it has been a very unique experience to look through these archives.”
While the Rockingham Cooperative has seen many changes over its nearly 100 years, one thing that has remained the same is the cooperative’s ability to adapt to the area and time it is operating in.
Ford said that within the first several years of the cooperative being open, the business found its niche in the poultry market. Into the late 1940s, the cooperative began filling shelves in Krogers across Virginia with eggs. In the present day, there are stronger ties to the dairy industry.
“As the market changed, we made changes to adapt to it,” Ford said.
The ability to adapt led Rockingham Cooperative from being a less than $20,000 business to a $100 million company.
“ We are tied to the agriculture industry here in Rockingham County the most because it is still the largest industry in Virginia and to provide goods and services to members and anyone else and letting any customer take advantage of savings is a big impact,” Ford said. “We do business in five to six different states, so the impact expands beyond Rockingham County.”
Ford said the goal is to provide savings on products and services. Anyone who would like to contribute a story to be included in the book can contact Ford at 540-437-2562.
“I am always looking for stories, and the more I hear is only going to help,” he said.
