Ralco, an agriculture and aquaculture technology company, announced June 14 that it has moved its global headquarters to a larger building in Marshall, Minn., to better house a growing number of employees and best serve customer needs.

Ralco also continues to maintain offices in Balaton, Minn., for affiliate The trū Shrimp Co. and Agnition staff.

Ralco Central Campus, located at 600 Michigan Rd. in Marshall, houses customer service, international business, quality assurance, quality control, business services, finance, technical services, information technology, human resources and marketing. Prior to the transition, these departments were divided among several locations.

Ralco president Brian Knochenmus said gathering as many departments together as possible has improved the customer experience.

“I think the biggest change is that customers have one location where they can find the answers to their questions. Whether they need to reach departments like customer service or shipping, customers can get face-to-face service at one location,” Knochenmus said.

The move to the Central Campus was necessary because Ralco said it has experienced exponential growth during the past decade, which has caused numerous changes within the company. However, Knochenmus said great care and emphasis have been taken to maintain the culture of the company.

“There are two sides to culture: There is maintaining what you have and building what you need. It can be a complicated thing, and I realize growth will always put pressure on culture naturally, yet it’s not a bad thing to grow. We don’t want to lose the vision we have as a company of providing a safe and abundant global food supply. That is a rock and foundation of the company,” Knochenmus said.

Ralco was founded in 1971 by Bob Galbraith, Knochenmus’s grandfather, who mortgaged his furniture and started the company in his garage. Galbraith went on to build the first Ralco headquarters. Knochenmus said it wasn’t easy to leave the original headquarters.

“Progress means change, and growth means change. It was a tough decision to move but a decision that needed to be made. Now that we’re here, we are glad we made the move,” he said.

Ralco is a third-generation, family-owned, multinational company with distribution in more than 20 countries. Ralco is a leading global supplier of livestock nutrition, animal health products and crop enhancement technologies that support large segments of the livestock, poultry, aquaculture and crop production industries.