Gavilon, a US grain trading subsidiary of Japanese trading house Marubeni, has appointed a new chief executive — its fourth in five years — while its business is being buffeted by trade turbulence in China.
Steven Zehr took over Monday as chief executive from Lewis Batchelder, who has retired, the company said. Mr Zehr joined Gavilon in 2011 and served as its chief operating officer since 2017.
With 338m bushels of US storage capacity and more than 1,900 employees, Omaha-based Gavilon is a leading grain handler in the US, purchasing crops from farmers and smaller merchants for sale to processors or export.
Marubeni bought the company from private investors for $2.7bn in 2013, an investment in which it subsequently took impairment charges. Marubeni also owns Columbia Grain, another crop merchant with silos in the Midwest.
Gavilon’s network of inland grain terminals left it exposed to plummeting soyabean exports after China imposed retaliatory tariffs last July. In the nine months to December, Gavilon’s net profit had fallen 77 per cent year on year to ¥3.5bn ($31.5m), according to a Marubeni financial statement.
Mr Batchelder, 74 years old, formerly worked for Archer Daniels Midland, the New York-listed grain and oilseeds trader and processor. He replaced Jim Anderson as chief executive in March 2016.
Mr Anderson took over in October 2014 from Greg Heckman, the chief executive during the sale of Gavilon to Marubeni. Mr Heckman is now acting chief executive of Bunge, a US-based grain and oilseeds trader and processor under investor pressure to improve its performance.
