FGC_10 Years
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
gigi@corridorbiznews.com<br />
tim@corridorbiznews.com<br />
$1.50<br />
ST<br />
Corridor’s<br />
CORRIDOR<br />
Rapid<br />
growth<br />
Asoyia named<br />
Corridor’s Fastest<br />
Growing company<br />
By Gigi Wood<br />
FOCUS:<br />
FASTEST GROWING<br />
COMPANIES<br />
Featuring the CBJ List<br />
of Fastest Growing<br />
Companies<br />
CEDAR RAPIDS/IOWA CITY CORRIDOR’S INDEPENDENT LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS WEEKLY<br />
JOHN RICHARD<br />
Asoyia President Greg Keeley compares the company’s journey thus far to a roller coaster ride while<br />
accepting an award at the Corridor Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies breakfast May<br />
28. Asoyia was named the fastest growing company of the Corridor, with 856 percent growth over a<br />
three-year period.<br />
It comes down to five principles.<br />
That's what Greg Keeley, president of<br />
Asoyia, told an audience last week at the<br />
Corridor Business Journal’s Fastest Growing<br />
Companies breakfast. Asoyia, maker of a<br />
zero trans fat soybean oils, was named the<br />
fastest growing company in the area.<br />
It was one of roughly 25 businesses to<br />
be nominated for the award; 15 were recognized<br />
at the breakfast at the new Kirkwood<br />
Community College’s Center for<br />
Continuing Education in Cedar Rapids.<br />
Companies had to earn at least<br />
$350,000 annually and were ranked<br />
based on the percentage increase in revenue<br />
experienced from 2005 to 2007.<br />
Companies submitted tax forms or audit<br />
statements to participate.<br />
“We got a good cross section of companies<br />
applying,” said Gordon Epping, a<br />
partner with Honkamp, Krueger & Co.,<br />
who evaluated the entries. “We had some<br />
big companies with some great, large sales<br />
apply but they didn’t have the percentage<br />
increase and didn't make the cutoff.”<br />
Asoyia topped the list with 856 percent<br />
growth. Mr. Keeley shared with the audience<br />
five principles all entrepreneurs need to follow<br />
to succeed in today’s business world.<br />
“Entrepreneurs are all about growth<br />
and not about cost reductions or laying<br />
off workers,” he said.<br />
Business owners need a great product,<br />
should spend wisely, hire great people<br />
and need passion, Mr. Keeley said.<br />
“Find great people,” he said. “Not<br />
good people, but great people.”<br />
Asoyia is a fledgling name in agriculture<br />
circles and has brought attention to its new<br />
hometown, Iowa City, in recent months. In<br />
March, Forbes.com ranked Iowa City<br />
Auto parts<br />
Company opens a new<br />
NAPA auto parts store after a<br />
long search for the right spot.<br />
PAGE 5<br />
The century mark<br />
Electrical and telecommunications<br />
wholesale supplier<br />
Terry-Durin Co. marks<br />
<strong>10</strong>0 years.<br />
PAGE 8<br />
eighth among its Top <strong>10</strong> Up-and-Coming<br />
Tech Cities, specifically naming Asoyia’s<br />
presence as a reason for the designation.<br />
The company was started by 25 farmers<br />
in 2004 in Winfield, a farming community<br />
45 miles south of Iowa City. It<br />
moved to Iowa City last year to be closer<br />
to business partners, such as Cargill in<br />
Cedar Rapids.<br />
Asoyia’s soybean oil is made from soybeans<br />
with only 1 percent of linolenic<br />
ASOYIA continues on page 12<br />
845 Quarry Rd. Ste. 125<br />
Coralville, IA 52241<br />
Credit counselor<br />
stresses paying<br />
debt is best use<br />
By Tim Kenyon<br />
June 2 - 8, 2008<br />
IOWA<br />
Economic<br />
stimulus<br />
check<br />
spending<br />
varied<br />
Using an economic stimulus check can be<br />
the first move for consumers to fix their<br />
troubled finances, according to a Cedar<br />
Rapids credit advisor.<br />
“I had a client last month that I put on<br />
a debt-management program and we<br />
looked at the check as a source to start<br />
debt reduction. That seemed to work good<br />
for us; we’re telling others the same thing,”<br />
said Kathi Moss, a housing and credit<br />
counselor at Consumer Credit Counseling<br />
Service in southeast Cedar Rapids.<br />
The $152 billion federal measure provides<br />
tax rebate checks of up to $600 per<br />
working individual and $1,200 per married<br />
couple, plus $300 per child for families with<br />
children. It also includes new tax incentives<br />
for job-creating business investments.<br />
Continuing to pay down debt without<br />
adding to it again is the next challenge,<br />
Ms. Moss said.<br />
“So many people are truly living on the<br />
STIMULUS continues on page <strong>10</strong><br />
Fastest Growing Companies 2008<br />
(Ranked by percentage revenue increase from 05-07)<br />
RANK NAME HOMETOWN PERCENTAGE GROWTH<br />
1 Asoyia LLC Iowa City 851<br />
2 Hybrid Transit Systems Inc. Cedar Rapids 818<br />
3 Express Auto Delivery Cedar Rapids 621<br />
4 MobileDemand Hiawatha 312<br />
5 kor Cedar Rapids 235<br />
6 ServiceMaster 380 Cedar Rapids 197<br />
7 Geonetric Cedar Rapids 156 1<br />
8 Reminisce North Liberty 144<br />
9 Genova Technologies Cedar Rapids 115<br />
<strong>10</strong> Iowa Northern Railway Cedar Rapids 89<br />
11 Bankers Trust Co. Cedar Rapids 89<br />
12 VIPS Cedar Rapids 73<br />
13 OPN Architects Inc. Cedar Rapids 72<br />
14 World Trend Financial Cedar Rapids 67<br />
15 RuffaloCODY Cedar Rapids 59<br />
Source: The companies featured on this list submitted information to an independent auditor for verification. 1 Figure from 04-06.<br />
“We had gotten investments and<br />
venture capital money came in and<br />
they helped sustain that for awhile,<br />
but the cost structure was just too<br />
heavy and eventually collapsed, based<br />
on what we could sell the oil for.”<br />
We Put Your Pets First<br />
– 2016 Fastest Growing Company Honoree –<br />
- Bob George, Former CFO of Asoyia<br />
think about how it will last longer in a fryer.”<br />
Saving the company would have required too much of an<br />
investment, he added.<br />
“Based on the numbers, it was going to take a significant<br />
amount of additional capital to try to get the cash flow positive<br />
and we just didn’t see a buyer on the horizon who was<br />
going to be willing to do that, let alone existing ownership,”<br />
Mr. George said.<br />
– Angela Holmes<br />
319-743-0554<br />
www.petersenpethospital.com<br />
420 Colton Circle NE, Unit 3, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402<br />
CBJ’s Fastest Growing Companies <strong>10</strong>th Anniversary 11