Synergy Expanding Office Space in Ridgeland

Photo submitted by Tommie Kelley

By Tommie Kelley

Synergy is a big presence in many of our communities, providing agronomy, grain, feed, refined fuels, and propane as well as convenience stores, tire and repair shops, hardware stores, and farm equipment parts and branded tractor dealerships. According to Synergy Cooperative’s website, Synergy was formed from 3 Northwest Wisconsin cooperatives in our readership area (Cedar Country of Elk Mound, Lakeland of Ridgeland, and United Ag Cooperatives of Almena) on October 1, 2017. Synergy has made smaller adjustments and consolidations since then. 

Kyle Knutson has also been within the families of cooperatives for many years. He started with Colfax Farmers’ Union in 1998, eventually working his way up to CEO of the Elk Mound Cooperative, and leading Synergy overall as CEO and General Manager since 2021. Kyle provided details for this article and is excited to lead the project to expand their office space in Ridgeland at the former Lampert Lumber site. Grindstone Construction is in charge of the renovations and has done work for the cooperative, dating back to at least 2017. 

Kyle said the new office space was a planned activity, but the Ridgeland site was also a lucky opportunity. As unfortunate as it was to have a local lumber yard like Lampert cease operations in Ridgeland, it created the opportunity for Synergy to acquire a parcel of land adjacent and contiguous to their other operations, where the existing building could be converted to much-needed office space. As truck access to the Fertilizer Plant had previously depended on transit through the edge of the lumber yard, the acquisition protects this access. Besides the finished building, the site also has a warehouse building, which Lampert used for cold lumber storage. According to Kyle, that space is being converted to records retention space. 

Synergy is not new to Ridgeland, and has had offices in Ridgeland, Elk Mound and Almena since at least 2017. In 2019, they first consolidated Accounts Payable in Ridgeland, and followed in 2023 by adding Accounts Receivable and Customer Service, adjusting other functions and sites as needed, and moving management to the main site for Agronomy in Cameron. This move left them in what Kyle termed as a ‘bulging at the seams’ state in Ridgeland. 

The Acquisition of the old Lampert site allows Synergy to co-locate the leadership team in Ridgeland, providing better opportunities for face-to-face time and collaboration on whatever challenges and opportunities arise. Kyle commented that there will still be remote work, but is hopeful that having the entire leadership team with dedicated space in Ridgeland will make it easier to sit down and talk across divisions as needs arise, instead of waiting until everyone is together. These new offices will create 11 office spaces, a break room, and a small conference/board room. Nine or ten of the spaces will be occupied immediately with existing employees, with a little room to grow in the future. The new office space also frees up some office space connected to the Ridgeland Hardware store. 

Synergy is moving fast on this project and hopes to have the office space ready in mid-June. This will allow them to shift the July 1 board meeting from the Cameron site to the Ridgeland location.