East Kansas Agri Energy Revenue and Competitors

East Kansas Agri-Energy was started as a steering committee formed by farmers and businesspeople interested in building a value-added ethanol production facility in Eastern Kansas. The process started with the Agriculture Sub-Committee of the Anderson County Economic Development (ACED) organization. In the Fall of 2000 they worked through the Ethanol Pre-Feasiblilty Matrix provided by Bryan & Bryan International (BBI) to communities interested in ethanol. The ACED Ag Sub-Committee determined through the BBI matrix that many of the pieces were in place to support an ethanol plant. A group of progressive farmers and businesspeople met over breakfast one morning in early January 2001 to discuss this possibility. With the blessing and a financial grant from ACED these farmers and businesspeople formed a steering committee and raised enough money to fund a full feasibility study. After determining that BBI was the best and correct consulting firm to conduct our feasibility study, BBI President and Founder Mike Bryan presented his firm's findings at meeting of the steering committee and all interested parties in May of 2001. In his words, he was "not here to promote the project, but to provide a calloused study." He concluded his presentation by saying the feasibility of our project was "quite favorable." The month of June was spent evaluating ethanol plant builders and designers. After interviewing the top ethanol design/builders in the country, the steering committee entered into a letter of intent with Fagan, Inc. on July 23, 2001. After interviewing and researching law firms the steering committee retained the firm of Brown, Winick, Graves, Gross, Baskerville and Schoenebaum, P.L.C, with Bill Hanigan as our lead counsel on September 24, 2001. On October 2, the steering committee hired the CPA firm of Christianson & Associates. With a builder, legal counsel and accountant on board, the steering committee voted on October 10, 2001 to form a Limited Liability Company (LLC). On October 15, 2001 East Kansas Agri-Energy, LLC. was formed as a legal entity. In January 2002 EKAE held a seed capital drive to raise enough money to take our organization through the final stock sale. An enormous amount of planning, financial, and legal work has occurred from January 2002 until now. On January 22, 2003 East Kansas Agri-Energy, LLC received written approval to sell membership units (stock) in Kansas and Missouri. This offering was successfully closed in the first half of 2005. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held on October 24, 2004. The plant was completed in an industry record eight months time. On June 10, 2005 the first load of corn was delivered to the plant by Glenn Caldwell. The first gallon of ethanol was produced on June 22, 2005. A second industry record was set when the EKAE plant went on-line to full production status in three days.