Wilco is a farmer-owned farm supply cooperative that began as the Santiam Farmers Co-op in the 1930s based in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. In 1967, the Santiam Farmers Co-op merged with 4 other co-ops, the Mt. Angel Farmers Union Warehouse, the

Donald Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

Farmers Co-op, the Valley Farmers Co-op in Silverton, and the

Canby Canby may refer to: People * Canby (surname) Places

;In the United States * Canby, California * Canby, Iowa * Canby, Minnesota * Canby, Oregon * Canby Creek, a stream in Minnesota * Canby Mountains, Oregon {{disambiguation, geo ...

Cooperative to form "Wilco Farmers Coop". The name "Wilco" comes from a shortening of "Willamette Consolidated". The cooperative has four divisions — Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, an ag business division that provides customers with crop protection products and fertilizers (Valley Agronomics), a fuels division for commercial petroleum, lubricants, and residential propane delivery and the farm store division. Today, the farmer-owned cooperative operates 24

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

farm stores throughout Oregon,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The retailer carries a wide range of hardware supplies alongside land, lawn,

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

, and pet-related products and

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

. The farmer-owned cooperative's headquarters are in Mt. Angel. Hazelnut Growers of Oregon processing plant and headquarters are based in Donald. In 2011, Wilco launched a program to support local FFA, called FFA Forever, collecting donations from vendors, employees, and customers. As of 2019, the program had collected more than 1 million dollars to benefit the Oregon and Washington FFA Associations.

References

External links

Wilco Coop - Official siteWilco Farm Store - Official siteHazelnut Growers of Oregon - Official siteValley Agronomics - Official site
Agricultural supply cooperatives Companies based in Marion County, Oregon Agriculture in Oregon Mt. Angel, Oregon American companies established in 1967 Retail companies established in 1967 1967 establishments in Oregon Agriculture companies of the United States {{Oregon-org-stub