Ralco, an agriculture and aquaculture technology company, has moved its global headquarters to a larger building to better house a growing number of employees and best serve customer needs. The headquarters remains in Marshall, Minnesota, where the company was founded in April 1971. Ralco also continues to maintain offices in Balaton, Minnesota, for affiliate The trū Shrimp Company and Agnition staff.
Ralco Central Campus in Marshall houses customer service, international business, quality assurance, quality control, business services, finance, technical services, information technology, human resources and marketing. Prior to the transition, departments were divided among several locations. Ralco President Brian Knochenmus said gathering as many departments together as possible has improved the customer experience.
“I think the biggest change is that customers have one location where they can find the answers to their questions. Whether they need to reach departments like customer service or finance, customers can get face-to-face service at one location,” Knochenmus said.
The move to Ralco Central Campus was necessary because Ralco has experienced exponential growth during the past decade which has caused numerous changes within the company. However, Knochenmus said great care and emphasis has been taken to maintain the culture of the company.
“There are two sides to culture. There is maintaining what you have and building what you need. It can be a complicated thing and I realize growth will always put pressure on culture naturally, yet it’s not a bad thing to grow. We don’t want to lose the vision we have as a company of providing a safe and abundant global food supply. That is a rock and foundation of the company,” Knochenmus said.
Ralco was founded by Bob Galbraith, Knochenmus’s grandfather. Galbraith mortgaged his furniture and started the company in his garage. He went on to build the first Ralco headquarters. Knochenmus said it wasn’t easy to leave the original headquarters.
“Progress means change and growth means change. It was a tough decision to move but a decision that needed to be made. Now that we’re here, we are glad we made the move,” he said.
Ralco is a third-generation family-owned multinational company with distribution in more than 20 countries. Ralco is a leading global supplier of livestock nutrition, animal health products and crop enhancement technologies that support large segments of the livestock, poultry, aquaculture and crop production industries.
