UPDATE: DENCO plant set to re-open
Corrected version: Original DENCO and Greenway Consulting companies were not dissolved after the sale of the plant was completed
By Tom Larson
Sun Tribune
The sale of the DENCO ethanol plant has been completed, and its new owners hope to have the plant operating by Oct. 1.
A familiar face also will be in charge of daily operations at the 25 million gallon per year plant.
The new owners closed on the sale on Wednesday and took over the plant on Thursday. The new company will be hiring 30 employees, according to Morris attorney Warrenn Anderson, who has been involved with the ethanol plant for many years.
Financing for the new plant, DENCO II, is coming in large part from area farmers and producers. DENCO II will market directly with area producers, Anderson said.
Energetix, a company founded by Mitch Miller, a former plant manager at the CVEC ethanol plant in Benson, and Jason Jerke in 2007, will be in charge of DENCO II's operations.
DENCO’s former plant manager, Mick Miller, will operate the facility.
Mick Miller left DENCO in 2005 but was working for DENCO subsidiary Greenway Consulting when he joined Red Tail Energy in North Dakota. Mick Miller joined Energetix in 2009.
The Energetics owners also will be stakeholders in DENCO II, Anderson said.
“They’ll be heavily motivated to make DENCO II a success and keep it open,” Anderson said.
He added that the Millers and Jerke are experienced in ethanol plant operations.
“Energetix is really a highly qualified company, with all the nuts and bolts needed to run an ethanol company,” Anderson said.
Long-term DENCO employees also have been pleased with the return of Mick Miller to the plant.
“He’s someone they’ve worked with and they’re familiar with him,” Anderson said. “They’re very happy to have him involved.”
Miller said Energetix had been following the DENCO situation for several months but that the owners' decision to bring Energetix on board was made fairly recently.
"It happened quickly," Mick Miller said. "We said, 'Let's take a look at it,' and now, here we are."
DENCO II is working on permitting issues involved with plant operations, but that the company is confident that the operation, which has been in transition for about six months, will be working smoothly, he said.
“The plant is in very good shape,” Anderson said.
Former DENCO CEO Gerald Bachmeier and other officials left the company earlier this month.
DENCO was locally owned until its stakeholders sold the company to Babcock & Brown, an Australian company, in 2006. In January 2009, DENCO was shut down for financial reasons.
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