Grain Craft team visits Pendleton after mill fire

Published 10:00 am Wednesday, August 17, 2022

PENDLETON — Officials from Grain Craft on Friday, Aug. 12, visited Pendleton in the aftermath of the fire that ravaged the company’s flour mill two days earlier.

Grain Craft confirmed President and CEO Pete Frederick, Senior Vice President of Operations Wade Blalock and Chief Human Resources Officer Jeff Zierenberg all came. Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock reported the Grain Craft team were on hand to assess the damage at the mill and meet with local officials. Grain Craft officials also met with the 22 employees of the mill to provide them reassurance.

Grain Craft spokesperson Natalie Faulkner said while many variables remain in play, Grain Craft continues to focus on its team members and the community.

Fire on Aug. 10, tore through the mill. Fire departments around the region responded to help Pendleton Fire Department take on the blaze. There were no reports of injuries, but Pendleton Fire Assistant Chief Tony Pierotti reported silos were at full capacity of finished grain, so the fire fuel load was extreme.

County Commissioner John Shafer said he asked the Grain Craft team a few questions, including about the future of the mill. But he said it was too early to provide any conclusions.

A structural engineer planned to assess the facility on Aug. 17. Shafer said the grain elevator and the flour storage house at the mill might be OK, but the structural assessment will make that determination.

James Reeder of Athena operates The Outlying Perspective, a drone aerial photography and inspection service. He said he is creating a 3D scan of the mill for the assessment.

“It’ll output a 3D model of the building, or what’s left of it,” he said.

The data can help figure out how to pull down structures and find if there are hot spots inside.

Smoke from the fire continues, and Pendleton Assistant Fire Chief Tony Pierotti said there have been a few flare ups. The city put up a chainlink fence around the mill, blocking access to it, and some streets near the mill now are open to traffic. However, Southeast Emigrant Avenue remains closed between Fourth and Sixth streets, as does Southeast Fourth Street between Emigrant and Frazer avenues.

Former Pendleton Flour Mill official Tony Flagg moved back to Pendleton from retirement in Florida on the Fourth of July this year and weighed in on the fire.

“The fire is quite a tragedy,” he said. “The business has been around for 112 years.”

Flagg was the Pendleton Flour Mills vice president of grain operations and chief executive officer from 1983 to 2003. He pioneered ground storage of grain at Mission on land leased from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Pendleton Flour Mills and its elevators partnered with other companies to form Grain Craft in 2014. Northwest Grain Growers, Walla Walla, assumed Grain Craft’s lease on the Mission elevator from the tribes in June 2016.

Flagg assessed the impact of the fire on local businesses. He said he expects more of a negative effect on grain growers than on truckers.

“If growers can’t sell as much grain locally, it might actually help truckers,” he said. “They’ll get more long hauls to the river, and fewer short hauls to Pendleton and Mission.”

Local growers however are likely to be hurt by the disaster.

“Short-term, there should be a negative impact for growers,” Flagg said. “They had three main market alternatives before the fire: United Grain (Corp.), Northwest Grain Growers and Pendleton Flour Mills (now Grain Craft). Three made for a more competitive market. Eliminate one, and competition is reduced. Pendleton Flour Mills offered a good price, but smaller volume than the export buyers.”

Flagg noted this year’s crop already is big.

“It was a challenge to find a home for physical storage even before the fire,” he said.

Flagg pioneered ground storage as president of United Grain, which exports to Asian markets.

Grain Craft, the largest independent milling company in the U.S., on June 21 announced its parent company entered into a deal for Redwood Holdings of Baltimore to acquire Grain Craft. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, bakingbusiness.com reported.

Redwood Holdings has invested in long-standing, family-owned businesses across a range of industries. Grain Craft will continue to operate as an independent business following the transaction, the company reported.

The nation’s third largest flour-milling company, Grain Craft operates 13 flour mills in the U.S. The company’s headquarters is in Chattanooga, Tennessee with a satellite office in Overland Park, Kansas, In October 2021, the company opened a new laboratory facility in the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan.

Grain Craft was established in May 2014 after Milner Milling Co. and its partner Pendleton Flour Mills acquired Cereal Food Processors Inc., Mission Woods, Kansas, bringing together three of the most prominent independent milling companies in the country. G&L Holdings, a family company, owned Grain Craft.

The sale closed Aug. 2.