Description

About Concentrates Inc.

In 1938, Concentrates began as a buyer’s co-op for farmers, farm supply stores and feed mills who wanted to take advantage of their combined buying power.

In the early 1990’s as Concentrates' shareholders aged, they invited Bill Sparks (the Bookkeeper turned Manager) to purchase one of the last shares. Later he would buy the old building and the remainder of the shares. Bill & Kelly Sparks own Concentrates now, and Senior Employees have been given the option to buy shares in the company, too. Two employees now own shares in our company!

We moved from our small, old building a block away into the old Darigold Warehouse down the street around 2001. That building sold September 2011, so we moved into our first modern facility October 2011. Nothing important will change, not our great service, great employees, great products, or great location. Our Product Showroom is getting bigger & better all of the time.

In 1997 our General Manager, Heather Havens, joined Concentrates. She expanded and highlighted our organic soil amendments, feed products, and services. She has a BS in Agriculture from OSU, is an Organic Agriculture educator and consultant, and she was involved in the creation of the OSU Organic Master Gardener Program.

Our Showroom Manager Dan Young is a horticultural expert, with a long history of working with Portland's finest wholesale and retail nurseries and garden stores. Dan is a wealth of practical gardening information. Kyle Scott our warehouseman is an organic farmer and carnivorous plant expert. We often have seasonal workers on staff with farming and horticultural knowledge. Concentrates has people on staff to help our customers with just about all of their growing questions.

The original Concentrates co-op members were primarily buying “Feed Concentrates”, which are the different feed ingredients needed for livestock to provide additional minerals, energy, and salts to their base diet of forage and grains. Fast forward a few decades and many things had changed, but the most important things stayed the same: Quality, friendly knowledgeable service and low prices.

Concentrates, Inc. started carrying feed in the mid 90’s when Darigold stopped selling retail from their Inner SE Portland Mill. Concentrates continues to add other lines of national, local, organic and conventional feeds.

Concentrates has always carried meals, such as cottonseed, linseed, kelp, fish, bone, blood, and feather. In the 1990's, organic farmers noticed that we carried these products, which are not only feed concentrates, but are great organic and natural fertilizers. As the desire for new products arose, new items were added to the inventory. These included organic fertilizers made from rocks, like rock phosphate, Glacial Rock Dust, and natural ground limestone. When pre-mixed Organic fertilizers became available, we brought them in, too. Word spread throughout the west that Concentrates was the place to get bulk organic fertilizer ingredients. Concentrates grew to become the largest wholesale distributor of Organic fertilizers on the West Coast.

Concentrates has always distributed Morton Salt's quality products, and recently we have also become a distributor for Redmond Salt, a natural, Organic, premium trace mineral salt from Utah.

Concentrates carries an eclectic range of products for all kinds of farmers, home-owners, and businesses. Please explore our site and find what we have in store for you!