FBN’s Refined Focus: One-On-One With Its Interim CEO

With recent turnover in company leadership, a divestment in its insurance business, and a growing list of partnerships, FBN is re-focusing its business. 

For the first nine years of FBN, it was led by co-founder Amol Deshpande. After his exit in February of 2023, board member John Vaske took the reins as CEO, but he stepped away in November 2023. Since then, Devin Lammers has taken on the role of interim CEO. 

“Our mission and our vision remain the same—that hasn’t changed. We want to power the prosperity of family farms,” says Lammers. “The core of our business and our execution capability haven’t changed. While we’ve had a shift in the CEO position, the company is still the company, and our day to day execution of the business is there to make good on our promise to growers.” 

Lammers joined FBN seven years ago as head of growth, including leading the FBN Financial segment and launching Gradable, the company’s sustainability platform. 

“The theme of the past year has been focus and increased profitability,” Lammers says. “Overall, we are narrowing toward overall profitability, but we’re striking a balance between growth and being profitable.” 

The company has had recent rounds of layoffs and resizing its team. FBN did not host its annual Farmers Farmer2Farmer in 2023. 
“We looked at internal costs and the resources it takes and we decided to not host the event this year,” he says. “But we plan to bring it back.” 

With close to 80,000 farmer members today, the company changed its subscription model three years ago from paid to free—which doubled sign ups. 

“Of our members, about 16,000 farmers transact with us, which includes buying inputs, acquiring financing or enrolling in the Gradable platform,” he says. 

In 2023, FBN completed 33,000 deliveries of farm inputs, provided $1 billion in financing, and paid $22 million in premiums from Gradable. 

“Much of the market has viewed us as an inputs provider, but FBN Financial and Gradable are 40% of our business as a contribution. We are just as much a financial services provider and sustainability platform/grain technology provider,” Lammers says. “Ultimately, FBN is truly a platform for farmers and their businesses.”

Especially in late 2023, FBN was marketing drastic discounts to its herbicide products, which brought attention to how the company had grown and was managing their inputs inventory. 

“Last year was a very different year – with market-wide price increases and then rapid declines,” Lammers says. “To FBN’s credit we hit it hard and worked through those. We entered this year in renewed positions and in how we think about that inventory.”

As for the future, he says FBN products and services will continue to combine digital tools, commerce, content and capabilities. 

“There are two pillars to our platform: access to information and access to commerce. A platform built with transparency in the marketplace is the DNA of FBN,” he says. “But compared to the old days of FBN, we have more focus on partnerships. We have no need to own the supply chain in the inputs and financing. We’re very open to creating more partnerships to benefit farmers and benefit suppliers.”

Lammers cites the ADM partnership as an example, which enrolled 1,500 farmers and 1 million acres. 

“There’s a reputation of FBN being antagonistic in the marketplace. I’ve been at FBN Financial and Gradable, and those businesses are all about building relationships,” Lammers says. “We’re having conversations in our inputs business, and you’ll probably hear more news from us.” 

In talking more about the future of the company, Lammers says a few weeks ago the board of FBN launched its formal search for a long-term CEO candidate—both internal and external candidates are being considered. 

Regarding FBN’s future business structure, Lammers says becoming a publicly traded company is not a certainty. 

“Personally for me, an IPO is not an end state. We are aspiring to be a great company, have a phenomenal team and make good on our promises to farmers every day,” Lammers says. 

He adds, ”Regarding the overall stability of FBN, our capital situation etc.. We have clarity, stability, and focus for our future.”