District Sales Manager (DSM) Ernie Hilliard, Storm Lake, Iowa earned the Top DSM Award for Fontanelle Hybrids for the 2002-2003 sales season. “Ernie deserves this award not only because of the outstanding work from this past year but because of his long term sales growth during his tenure with Fontanelle,” Steve Pike, sales manager said.

The Top DSM Award is based upon the number of acres of growth a DSM has from the previous year. It includes the entire Fontanelle product line up of corn, soybeans, sorghum, sunflowers and alfalfa.

 “This past year everything clicked,” Hilliard said. “We had good products and solid performance. But more importantly, the dealer team is second to none. I couldn’t have achieved this award without them.”

“It was great to see Ernie earn this award because he’s been a part of the team for a long time—28 years in fact,” Pike said. “He’s always been a quiet leader—someone that the other team members look to as a role model. The main secret behind Ernie’s recent success is the dealer team he’s put together. By working with his team he’s been able to reach more people to tell the Fontanelle story. Combine that with Ernie’s drive for excellent customer service and his depth of knowledge in product placement and we’ve got a winning combination that will continue as successful partnerships with customers into the future.”

Fontanelle Hybrids is a 68 year old employee-owned seed company marketing corn, soybeans, grain sorghum, alfalfa and sunflowers in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri and portions of Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Texas. Fontanelle Hybrids is one of the five owners and members of the Core Group that markets value added products under the High Cycle^® Seed Systems brand of products.

High Cycle is a registered trademark of the CORE Group.