Headquartered in Hall, NY, Seedway, LLC maintains locations in Phoenix, Trumansburg and Mecklenburg, NY, Shoreham, VT, Wales, ME, Mifflinburg, Emmaus and Elizabethtown, PA, Lakeland and Frostproof, FL and Pelham, GA. A full-line seed company, marketing farm and turf seed in fourteen mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states and vegetable seed from the US Rocky Mountains to the east coast and in the southern provinces of Canada, Seedway, LLC is a subsidiary of GROWMARK, Inc., Bloomington, IL.
Seedway’s origins began in 1923 with the formation of Robson Seed Farms, a mail order vegetable and seed business in Hall, NY. In the 1960’s a second business began operation, Robson Quality Seeds, the marketing arm of Robson Seed Farms. In 1963, Carl Fribolin of Geneva, NY joined Robson Quality Seeds and the Seedway foundation was laid, with the ownership and name officially changing in 1971.
Initially, the company gained its reputation primarily in commercial and home garden vegetable seed sales. As the company grew, it expanded its product offering to include farm seed, primarily in New York and New England.
The 1970’s began a period of sustained growth and diversification for Seedway. The product offering expanded to include turf seed, sold primarily to golf courses, contractors, landscapers, municipalities, universities and school districts.
Acquisitions became a long-term growth strategy. Seed companies purchased by and assimilated into Seedway include; Seem Seed Farms, Emmaus, PA in 1974, Todd Seed Company, Abbottstown, PA in 1977 and Scarlett Seed Company in Baltimore, MD in 1978. In 1987 Seedway was sold by its private ownership to Agway, Inc., a Northeast and Mid-Atlantic cooperative base in Syracuse, NY. Growth and acquisitions continue with the purchase of Carlton Seed, Porter’s Sideling, PA in 1990, Burpee Commercial Vegetable Seed, Chicago, IL in 1996. During this period, Agway, Inc. consolidated the Agway and Seedway commercial vegetable seed business into one unit under the Seedway brand name and management.
In 2002, Growmark, Inc. purchased Seedway from Agway, Inc. beginning a new era in Seedway’s history and marking a new phase of growth. Continuing a successful tradition of company acquisitions, Seedway purchased Agriculver Seeds, Trumansburg, NY in 2003, AgriSales, Inc., Plant City, FL in 2004, the commercial vegetable business of Mixon Seed, Orangeburg, SC and Chesmore Seed, St. Joseph, MO in 2007 and Olds Garden Seed, Madison, WI in 2011. The Olds Garden Seed purchase compliments Seedway’s existing arrangement of procuring, packaging and supplying home garden flower and vegetable seed to Agway Brand retail stores in the Northeast United States. In 2015 Seedway has acquired Merritt Seed Company, Lysander, NY and the farm seed business assets of Reeds Seeds, Cortland, NY to further extend the growth of turf seed and farm seed sales. More recently, in 2017 Seedway acquired the farm business assets of Wise Seed Company, Frostproof, FL and the turf seed assets of Maine Seed Company, Wales, ME.
Uniquely positioned logistically with eight full-service office/warehouse locations from Vermont to Central Florida, Seedway can move seed to dealers and growers with a level of speed and accuracy not found in today’s environment of mail-order seed companies and Goliath organizations that are not locally situated to meet customer needs. The Seedway product mix is broad and deep with seed products well-adapted regionally to meet growers’ varied needs from corn silage to corn and soybean grain production, nutritional forage for animal feed, turf seed for a multitude of uses and commercial and organic vegetable seed to meet growers’ production needs. Seedway offers growers More Options, Better Value™.
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” –Andrew Carnegie