US BioEnergy Corp. is moving from South Dakota to Minnesota. The company has also named a new president, according to a press release issued Tuesday. Brian Thome, a Director on the Corporate Board since the company’s inception, has been named President of the Corporation. As President, Thome will primarily be responsible for building the infrastructure necessary to support the rapid growth of the ethanol company. US BioEnergy – which recently partnered with CHS, Inc. (see previous post) – decided to move from Brookings, SD to St. Paul, MN to be closer to its business partners and a larger labor pool.
In another release issued today, US BioEnergy also announced that it will be acquiring Platte Valley Fuel Ethanol located near Central City, NE. Currently US BioEnergy has two plants under construction: US Bio Albert City, a 110 million gallon per year (mgy) plant in Iowa scheduled to be on-line in November 2006 and US Bio Woodbury, a 45 mgy plant in Michigan, scheduled to begin production in October of 2006. US Bio Janesville, a 110 mgy plant located in Minnesota is in the permitting phase and will begin construction sometime this summer. With Platte Valley, this would bring US BioEnergy production to approximately 250 million gallons per year by the end of 2006.