Cargill closing Coralville office

Cargill Animal Nutrition plans to close its office in Coralville on Jan 31.

Minneapolis-based Cargill, which operates corn and soybean processing plants in Cedar Rapids, has operated an animal nutrition office in Coralville since 2008.

The customer service and sales office at 2651 Crosspark Road employs 28 and 15 employees will be affected by the closing.

'In an effort to streamline our business operations in the Midwest, Cargill has made the difficult decision to close its Coralville office,” said Kari Soderberg, Cargill communications lead. 'The customer operations function will move to our Kansas City (Kansas) office, and some employees will have the option to continue in their role in that office.”

In a news release, Mark Lueking, managing director for Cargill's animal feed business in the United States, said the company will do its best to support the affected employees to minimize the impact on them. That will include severance and job placement assistance.

'Where possible, we will identify employment opportunities for affected employees at other Cargill locations,” Lueking said.

Cargill Animal Nutrition employs 17,000 people at more than 250 facilities in 37 countries.