In July, Clinton-based
The DeLong Co. Inc. celebrated the grand opening of its new $40 million agricultural maritime export facility at
Port Milwaukee, marking the largest one-time investment in the port since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in the 1950s.
Located on the west side of Jones Island, the new facility is one of the first on the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway system to handle various agricultural commodities via truck, rail and international vessel. Among those commodities, the facility is initially focused on exporting DDGS (dried distillers grain with solubles), a byproduct of ethanol typically used as a nutrient-rich animal feed, to Europe and north Africa. Future service at the facility will include the export of soybeans, corn and grain.
Opening Wisconsin’s maritime and agricultural sectors to new international markets, the facility is expected to have a $63 million annual impact on the state’s economy and increase exports through Port Milwaukee by as much as 400,000 metric tons per year. To that end, the project has strengthened the port’s role as an “integral link in Wisconsin’s economy,” said
Jackie Q. Carter, director of Port Milwaukee.
“This investment is about realizing new agricultural trade opportunities,” she said.
The three-year effort built upon an existing relationship between The DeLong Co., – a family-owned business now in its sixth generation – and Port Milwaukee, which had handled the company’s shipping containers in the past. It was through this relationship that DeLong realized a potential opportunity in an underutilized portion of Port Milwaukee’s lakefront property. The 4-acre industrial site – formerly operated by Advance Boiler & Tank Co. – had not been used for freight handling since the 2010s.
“We basically saw this property and thought maybe there’s a chance to do something here,” said
Brandon Bickham, export sales director for The DeLong Co. “It was a nicely sized property and we basically started doing our due diligence. As we became more comfortable with the economics around loading vessels in the Great Lakes, Port Milwaukee was walking step-by-step with us throughout that process up until the facility was built.”
For its investment in Milwaukee’s maritime commerce and the state’s economy, The DeLong Co. is the
BizTimes Milwaukee 2023 Best in Business Family-Owned Business of the Year.
DeLong covered $14 million of the $40 million project, funded initially by a $15.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, $9.5 million from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and $5.7 million from Port Milwaukee. In November, Port Milwaukee received a $9.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration for upgrades to the facility, including two new grain silos and additional grain and cargo handling equipment.
Looking ahead, DeLong wants to continue working toward the possibility of accepting unit trains at Port Milwaukee.
“In a project like this, you’ve got a lot of different stakeholders,” said Bickham. “It’s just communicating with everyone, getting a plan together … all sorts of things that you come up against with a site that’s this old and that’s already got previous building on it. I would say just managing the project in general is a big undertaking.”
The DeLong Co. was founded as a grain operation in 1913 by brothers William and Jesse DeLong. Today, the company is the country’s largest exporter of containerized agriculture products, with 38 facilities and offices across the U.S. A dozen fourth- and fifth-generation DeLong family members are actively involved in the business.
Bickham said a “tremendous amount” of the agricultural goods making their way through the export facility come from the state of Wisconsin. Products from Iowa, Minnesota – and possibly the Dakotas soon – are also processed there. The economic impact of the facility reaches far beyond the Milwaukee area, he noted.
“There was obviously a tremendous amount of job creation during the building of the facility,” said Bickham. “There’s job creation when you look at the rail logistics inbound, the truck logistics inbound, and then you have the actual transfer of the goods from one mode of transportation to another. All of that is new economic impact.”
Key to DeLong’s continued growth is the flexibility of operating as a family-owned, closely held company.
“Family-owned, small businesses tend to have long-term relationships. It’s less transactional,” Bickham said. “As you’re building a project, there’s a need for all sides to give or take. I think that’s easier being a smaller family business. The numbers change a little bit, but there’s not necessarily shareholders saying, ‘I want answers for this.’ We’re looking at this from a very long-term view.”
