Bremen Mills

The Bremen Milling, Processing & Farming Association, commonly known as Bremen Mills, was a human agricultural conglomerate based on Rytif in the Bremen system. It was formed in the 27th century as a union of major landholders during the agricultural boom on Rytif, and in 2717 it merged with Terragra Incorporation to form Terra Mills, one of the leading food and beverage producers of the 30th century.

History

Settlement of Bremen began in the 25th century, but Rytif did not become economically significant until the outbreak of the Second Tevarin War in 2603, when the Navy turned to the agrarian planet to help feed its forces. As demand rose, the planet's farmers lacked the infrastructure to take full advantage of the government subsidies, so they pooled their resources. Under the leadership of de facto governor Arcturus Koerner, the major landholders on Rytif banded together to form the Bremen Milling, Processing & Farming Association, more commonly known as Bremen Mills. The collective of farms, processing centers, and mills allowed its members to cut costs by sharing the overhead of large-scale production and presented a united front through which they could set higher prices by collective bargaining.

Within a few years Bremen Mills became an economic power, and its shareholders grew wealthy over the following decades. A lack of diversification left it exposed, however, and when the grain market crashed in 2640, Rytif and Bremen Mills fell on hard times. The Empire still needed grain, and the established network of transport, milling, and processing allowed Bremen Mills to endure where other farmers were forced to close. Many of the farms consolidated ownership, and by the turn of the 28th century Bremen Mills held the largest agricultural holding on Rytif and had changed from an association into a corporate entity in its own right.

In 2716, the main Bremen Mills grain facilities outside Stalford exploded, killing hundreds and injuring hundreds more, in an event known as the Great Stalford Disaster. Official reports attributed the explosion to a broken filtration unit that allowed airborne flour dust to accumulate to dangerous concentrations until a single spark ignited it. The resulting fire burned tens of thousands of cultivated acres and took days to contain, leaving little hope that the struggling collective could recover.

The opportunity to rebuild came from Terragra Incorporation, an agricultural conglomerate founded in 2665 on Terra and known for its range of snacks. Terragra had struggled to secure an affordable and reliable source of wheat for its expanding production, and after the disaster at Stalford it offered Bremen Mills the capital needed to rebuild in exchange for a controlling interest. The two companies agreed to a merger, and in the summer of 2717 they revealed their combined corporate identity as Terra Mills, headquartering production on the more affordable Rytif.

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