WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA — CBH Group announced on April 12 that it will acquire the remaining 50% share of on-line grain price discovery and management service DailyGrain.

DailyGrain is a Western Australian based company, developed in 2007 by the owners of Plum Grove. It is a paid membership, on-line service that compares marketers’ live prices for grain every working day throughout the year.

In May 2009 CBH Group bought a 50% stake in DailyGrain with the aim of extending the service to a broader audience and utilizing opportunities that existed to link the tool to CBH Group’s LoadNet. LoadNet is an online system that allows growers to track all their deliveries into the CBH storage and handling network and nominate grain to buyers.

CBH Group Chief Executive Officer Andrew Crane said the partnership with DailyGrain has been very successful with several levels of service now on offer. This has led to over 4,000 growers currently receiving at least one of DailyGrain’s price discovery services, a significant increase from just under 1,000 growers prior to the purchase.

“DailyGrain provides a valuable service in arming its users with the right information to make better decisions for their businesses,” Crane said. “As such, it has many synergies with the CBH Group which is also focused on assisting WA growers to enhance the value of their grain.”

“With the introduction of Quality Optimisation by CBH last year, which enabled growers to blend grain on-line after delivery rather than physically on farm, further opportunities have arisen to integrate our product offering with DailyGrain. For example, DailyGrain offers a contract optimization service which is a natural fit to integrate with and enhance our quality optimization tool LoadNet Optimiser.

“CBH has decided to exercise our option to acquire the remaining 50% of DailyGrain so that we can really pursue the exciting potential of fully integrating our systems for the benefit of growers.

“After three years of partnership, we believe growers, their advisors and marketers can have full confidence that DailyGrain will continue to provide the best price management service in the market.”

DailyGrain Independent Director Nathan Omodei said the business will operate as a separate subsidiary of CBH, continue to be governed by an experienced board with independent directors and remain an innovative, user-driven business.

“DailyGrain’s growth and success has relied on us treating all marketers equally and providing completely objective grain price information to growers and farm advisers and that will continue,” Omodei said. “DailyGrain will continue to offer its current suite of membership services with full membership discounted at A$350 per annum and DailyGrain Intro membership free of charge for CBH members.”