ST. PAUL -- After 10 years leading CHS Inc., John Johnson went through a mental checklist before announcing his retirement.
He saw that the farm-and-energy cooperative was profitable and strong, with revenue of $25 billion a year. Its diversification strategy was working to ease the shocks of a commodity-based business.
A cluster of younger executives was waiting in the wings.
And his family was ready. "My wife put it to me this way: 'Maybe it's time you're married to me instead of CHS,'" said Johnson, 62.
So, at the end of 2010, Johnson will step down as president and chief executive of the Inver Grove Heights-based co-op -- a huge farmer-owned company that's largely invisible to urban dwellers, even as it's grown more vital across rural America.
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From running grain elevators to selling propane, from processing food to operating small-town convenience stores, the company once known as Cenex-Harvest States is a fixture across the Northern Plains and, now, far beyond.
CHS is the nation's largest cooperative, with revenue on par with corporate titans like McDonald's and DuPont. Johnson isn't particularly troubled that urbanites seem to barely know a company that also sells fertilizer, makes lubricants and exports grain.
"I'd be more concerned if people in the country didn't know us," he said.
Johnson was president and chief executive of Harvest States during its historic 1998 merger with another Minnesota-based farmer cooperative, Cenex. Two years later, he became head of the combined company.
He calls that merger "the one that really changed everything for us. ... It put us in a different dimension." Revenue has risen threefold since 2000. Earnings are up fourfold.
"Putting two organizations together of that size has its challenges," Johnson said. "But I think what surpassed our expectations was the performance. Keep in mind, these are all commodity businesses, and it proves the point that size and scale matter."
In the past decade, CHS has expanded its footprint in food processing, ethanol marketing, international sales and more. It's had some misses. A Mexican-food venture didn't work out. It lost money investing in ethanol production. But CHS has mostly prospered in the past decade.
In an interview, Johnson raised the possibility that a different business structure might make more sense for CHS than remaining a cooperative. Someday, its farmer-owners may opt "to have more liquidity around their ownership," he said. And raising capital can be an issue for cooperatives.
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"Do we have access to enough capital to satisfy our growth?" Johnson asked, later adding, "If I was to be around for another 10 years, I wouldn't let the ownership structure" determine how aggressively CHS could expand.
But that's an issue for another CEO.
A search committee has begun looking both inside and outside the company. CHS expects to announce a successor by its annual meeting in December.
"I still enjoy it, still have enthusiasm for the job," Johnson said.
But he decided it was time to trade the corporate suite for an active retirement that he hopes will include advocacy on business ethics, agriculture, fundraising and lectures.
