For more than three decades, Alltech has remained committed to its founding ACE principle; a promise that when doing business they have a positive impact on the animal, consumer and the environment. In order to achieve this, they have strategically placed regional offices in some of the most influential agricultural communities in North America, and one of them is in Fresno, California. Although placed in a starter office, they have maintained a steady presence with local businesses, producers and organizations.
As Alltech California continues to strengthen their relationships and involvement within the community, their goal of becoming permanent residents is in view. Tyler Bramble, western U.S. regional manager, has been making huge strides within Tulare County to find a new home for Alltech that is not only surrounded by agriculture but brings value to its neighbors and becomes a hub for California dairymen. Bramble is in the process of identifying land that would allow Alltech to construct a series of buildings including an office, lab and warehouse. If achieved, this would make Alltech’s California office one of the company’s largest regional offices in North America.
Bill Cheek, one of the founding fathers of Alltech, started building relationships in California within the first few years of the company’s founding in 1980. The company has had a fully dedicated sales force in California for more than 10 years now and established the Alltech California office in 2003, allowing the team to have a committed presence for expanding on relationships and activities with local customers and the public.
Throughout its 31 years, Alltech has devoted time to social projects that can impact the lives of many people. As more and more people migrate towards city living, the connection to the farm has become a distant memory. “Giving Kids a Chance” was an Alltech program that allowed more than 62,000 children a chance to experience the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, equestrian sport, and Alltech’s extensive exhibits dedicated to science and agriculture. This program in particular was made possible through the partnership of 126 companies who do business with Alltech and pledged a $10,000 commitment to this student program. Six of the companies that stepped up to partner with Alltech in “giving kids a chance” were from California: A.L. Gilbert, Best Ag, J.D. Heiskell, Pine Creek Nutrition, Nutrius and Western Milling.
Kidzone, an interactive educational program geared toward K-12th graders, was designed in 2004 to give children around the world an opportunity to learn about the role agriculture plays in their everyday lives through activities, worksheets and lesson plans. The launch of Kidzone, created by Alltech in conjunction with Agri Aware, the Irish agri-food educational body, is receiving widespread approval and acclaim in the U.S. Once this program has reached the mandates California requires for all lesson plans, agriculture educational programming will become a readily available resource for teachers to utilize on a regular basis. The Alltech team in California is working in conjunction with Ag in the Classroom and various California teachers to get Alltech’s Kidzone Program in the state’s
schools as soon as possible.
Another one of Alltech’s primary objectives is its Sustainable Haiti Project, a 501c3 effort to help rebuild the country through tangible, long-term investment. In seeking to enrich existing Haitian enterprises, Alltech launched the Café Citadelle coffee brand in September 2010 and has since partnered with the Visalia Rescue Mission to promote and give a local presence to this uplifting program, which delivers all coffee sale proceeds back to the people of Haiti. The 100 percent organic, shade-grown Arabica coffee is Fair Trade Certified and hand-picked to ensure a consistent and flavorful coffee at the peak of its richness. Efforts are being made to have it available in Visalia coffee shops, sold in well-known restaurants and promoted in the Visalia Rescue Mission’s monthly newsletter. PD
—From Alltech news release
