Emerald Grain

About

Emerald Grain Pty Ltd was originally known as Emerald Group Australia and commenced its operations in Melbourne in 2004. Emerald initially started as a grains & oilseeds marketing and trading business, and evolved over a ten year period to operate throughout the grain supply chain.

Emerald now owns 15 country storage sites, runs multiple train sets and road transport activities, it owns the bulk export terminal in the Port of Melbourne and as a JV partner owns a similar facility in Port Kembla.

Emerald was founded and incubated within the PIA Group office and was originally owned 100% by PIA Group. PIA brought in some key strategic partners early in the Emerald start-up phase and over time build its number of shareholders grew to over 60 in number comprising Directors, staff and mezzanine capital providers.

Emerald evolved from a start-up, with a turnover of $5m in its first year, to grow to a position where it was acquiring around 12% (4.5 million tonnes) of Australia’s grain production, with an annual turnover of A$1.5 billion in 2013.

Emerald’s competitive advantage was that it developed strong alliances with farmer groups and co-operatives around regional Australia, this gave it a sustainable edge in grain accumulation & trading, storage, handling and logistics.

The Emerald shareholders sold the business to Sumitomo Corporation in early 2014 and the business continues to operate under the same brand name as a leading part of the agribusiness activities of a significant Japanese multinational which has operations in 66 countries.

See a timeline of Emerald’s growth by clicking here or alternatively visit the Emerald Grain website  for more detailed information.