Overland Park, Kansas – KALO is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its founding in 1932. For the last 90 Years, KALO has centered itself around a scientific approach and innovative solutions for its customers in the agriculture, seed care and turf supply industries.
These common sense values have allowed KALO to succeed as a company for nine decades and have a trajectory of continued growth as it approaches the century mark.
“While KALO has the good fortune of longevity, our success is connected to the hard work of our employees; the steadfastness of our valued customers and the dependability of our supply partners; all of which spotlight the character of our organization,” Chuck Champion, president of KALO, said. “Sometimes all you need is a common-sense approach and to know what your customers want while knowing what your company does best, then focus on where those two meet.”
Then And Now
Established in 1932 as the KALO Inoculant Company in Quincy, Illinois, the firm developed a line of bacterial legume inoculants used by Midwest farmers to boost alfalfa and clover hay yields.
In 1968, KALO was acquired by Marion Laboratories, the Kansas City-based pharmaceutical company, and was renamed KALO Laboratories. Product research intensified, producing unique seed treatments by combining inoculants, plant nutrients and fungicides. KALO also emerged as a significant supplier of box seed treatments for soybeans.
In 1981, KALO employees purchased the company from Marion under the current name KALO, Inc. Most of the seed treatment product line was then sold to narrow the KALO focus on the adjuvant, turf specialty and private label businesses.
From 1999-2015 KALO established critical supply and manufacturing relationships that allowed it to expand into new markets and product categories. KALO now has major partnerships in adjuvant, dry product, inoculant and seed care categories.
Today, KALO works as a partner with their diversified customer base, transforming how the industry protects our food sources utilizing the latest in seed care formulations. KALO is fully committed to the industries it serves. KALO is one of the longest continuously operated suppliers of adjuvants, specialty products and seed care related agricultural inputs in the U.S. today.