Ethanol Giant Shifts Focus

Minneapolis Star Tribune
By LIZ FEDOR, Star Tribune
Last update: January 3, 2010 - 5:08 PM

A Granite Falls contractor will adapt his business model to emphasize wind and biomass.

GRANITE FALLS, MINN. - Welders at Fagen Inc. will kick off the new year by using their torches to fabricate parts destined for an ethanol plant in Hungary.

Ron Fagen, the CEO of Fagen Inc., put this western Minnesota town on the national map by building 47 ethanol projects across the United States between 2006 and 2008. His family-owned company generated $2.2 billion in revenue in 2007.

"Corn ethanol has been the best thing that has happened to the farmers since the invention of the combine," said the 61-year-old Fagen, who grew up in the tiny community of Maynard near Granite Falls. "It gives them another market for their corn."

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