Less than a month after announcing plans to double the plant, Exol has lost its financial backing for the project.

Thursday, October 07, 1999

Less than a month after announcing plans to double the plant, Exol has lost its financial backing for the project.

&uot;The person we had been talking to about the project has backed away,&uot; said Tony Simpson, general manager of Exol. &uot;At this point we have no active lender.&uot;

But that doesn’t mean the plan is scraped. Simpson said the board will continue to search for financial backing.

&uot;We are going to be looking for any available opportunity to find a financial partner who believes in the company and the ethanol industry as we do,&uot; Simpson said.

The board sought $16 million to complete construction that would double the plant’s production.

At a meeting last month where 280 of the 500 members attended, they voted unanimously for the expansion plans.

The board had a verbal agreement with representatives from Stearns County Bank, the lender that had backed out of the original plant.

Simpson didn’t speculate on why the bank backed out a second time.

The growth would have had the plant pumping out an annual 30 million gallons by March 2001.

Currently, the plant is &uot;running extremely, extremely well,&uot; Simpson said. August was a production record for the plant, and it is already running at full capacity.

Simpson credits an outstanding crew and supportive shareholders and board members for the success.