Travis Pell has a simple strategy at work; play to your strengths. “At Ceres,” Travis says, “Our strength is that we’re local. We know our customers... their families... and in a lot of cases, we also know the generation who farmed before them and the one coming up after them. When we grow those relationships right, it seems to naturally grow the business, too.” A member of the Ceres Solutions team for almost eight years, Travis is Operations Manager at our Fremont, Michigan, location. While his job description would indicate he oversees equipment purchases for the feed and agronomy divisions, his day-to-day activities include solving problems, asking questions and listening to customers. “What has shaped our business the most is that sense of obligation to anticipate and help meet the changing needs of farmers. In on-boarding, I tell new hires that our purpose is to get to know customers, and work to help them. Pretty much everything we do here is built on that.” Due to the proximity of his location to White Cloud, Travis naturally points to the construction of the new Feed Mill a few years ago as an example of listening to local voices and helping meet a need. That investment was a commitment... to ensure safe, quality, custom feeds would be accessible in this local marketplace. “We keep it simple. If we work to earn long-term trust, and treat people how we want to be treated, we’ll succeed,” says Travis.