Producer
Ferrellgas
Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. (Overland Park KS; private; Jim Ferrell family; ~$1.9B revenue FY2024; Propane subsidiary: Ferrellgas LP; brand: Blue Rhino cylinder exchange) is the second-largest retail propane distributor in the United States with ~1 million residential and agricultural customers. Ferrellgas is the dominant propane supplier in the rural US Midwest — Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota — the same region where grain drying propane demand spikes each fall harvest. Ferrellgas went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2020 and emerged restructured in March 2022. The bankruptcy was partly triggered by the 2020-2021 propane price volatility combined with debt from aggressive expansion. Agricultural propane customers — particularly grain elevator operators and large-acreage corn farms — are Ferrellgas's highest-volume accounts, typically consuming 10,000-50,000 gallons per harvest season.
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Residential & Commercial Propane
55%Agricultural Propane
28%Blue Rhino Cylinder Exchange
12%Industrial & Fleet
5%
Intelligence
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Incident2022
Ferrellgas Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2020, listing $2.1 billion in debt — the result of aggressive retail propane acquisition strategy in the 2010s and a series of failed business diversification attempts. The bankruptcy proceeded through 2021 while the company continued operating as a going concern, with major agricultural propane customers facing uncertainty about long-term supply contracts and pre-buy program viability. Ferrellgas emerged from bankruptcy in March 2022 — directly following the winter 2021-22 propane price spike. The bankruptcy constrained Ferrellgas's ability to pre-purchase propane inventory at summer prices for fall agricultural customers during the critical 2021 harvest season. Post-bankruptcy, Ferrellgas consolidated its distribution network, closing some rural distribution points that served low-volume agricultural customers in remote Midwest locations. The Ferrellgas bankruptcy is the only major propane distributor Chapter 11 in US history and illustrates the financial fragility of agricultural energy supply chains: a single commodity trader serving 12%+ of US grain-drying propane demand entered bankruptcy in the same year as the most volatile propane prices in a decade.
Reuters ↗Did you know2024
Ferrellgas's Blue Rhino brand is the retail face of a propane distributor most consumers associate with backyard BBQ. But ~28% of Ferrellgas's revenue comes from agricultural propane — delivering to grain dryers that remove moisture from corn and soybeans to prevent storage spoilage. The same Ferrellgas delivery driver who drops off a Blue Rhino BBQ cylinder in a suburban driveway also supplies the on-farm grain dryer in rural Kansas that enables that farm's corn harvest to be safely stored. The recreational/lifestyle propane market and the agricultural food storage supply chain are served by the same distribution infrastructure, and a propane supply disruption in the Midwest harvest window simultaneously affects suburban BBQ availability and the grain handling capacity of millions of acres of corn.
Ferrellgas ↗Origin2023
Ferrellgas was founded by James E. Ferrell in 1965 in Atchison, Kansas, starting as a small regional propane distributor serving rural agricultural areas. Ferrell built through acquisitions of independent rural propane dealers across the Midwest and South, consolidating a fragmented industry. The company gained a consumer brand with the acquisition of Blue Rhino in 2004 — the cylinder exchange program that turned propane from a utility into a commodity product available at retail stores. The Ferrell family remains the majority owner through a family holding company.
Ferrellgas ↗