Big Horn Co-Op welcomes Gauker as new GM

The Big Horn Co-Op has formally announced Jim Gauker as the new chief executive officer and general manager. Gauker, who served as the chief financial officer (CFO) of the co-op for one year, replaces outgoing GM Randy Carlholm.

Following his appointment by the co-op board, Gauker met with members of the press individually. When he joined the newspaper for a sit-down conversation, he fielded questions about the co-op stores, their recent demise, transparency with stakeholders and customer service, and employee satisfaction and care. Joining Gauker for his conversation with the newspaper was board member Tim Flitner, who provided additional insight into the co-op’s future.

Gauker Joins the Co-Op

Jim Gauker was raised on farms in Indiana. He played football, attended Purdue University and later received his MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University. He worked at Owens Corning, a Fortune 200 company, following graduation, then Separators, and soon gained a reputation as a turnaround artist — or an executive who steps in when companies are underwater and makes them profitable again.

He returned to Indiana with his family for a job as the CFO of another co-op after his youngest daughter told him she was “tired of being the new kid in school anymore.”

“That just really hit me,” he recalled. “When she told me that, it broke my heart and nothing is more important to me than family. I ended up at a big co-op in Indiana as the CFO and learned a lot about the co-op system.”

His family — a wife and two daughters — love travel, having visited 49 of the 50 states together. When the opportunity presented itself to move to Wyoming for a role as CFO of a co-op with the potential to eventually become CEO — Carlholm, Gauker said, told him at the time of his hiring that he planned to retire in the next few years — they jumped. 

In March 2024, Gauker relocated from Indiana to Wyoming. He worked alongside Carlholm and the board, attempting to cut costs and bring spending under control. 

“We had to get rid of underperforming assets and retail was killing us,” he explained. “When I did the analysis, it became a no-brainer that we needed to exit that business, but at the same time, if you cut things in the field, then
 the so-called ‘ivory tower’ up here at corporate has to be cut.”

One of Gauker’s first acts as new CEO was to make his old position redundant, eliminating the cost. He reasoned that he could do the work of both for the price of one. He has since made additional cuts and is planning for more in the future to remove wasteful spending from the budget and bring the company in-line with its current financial holdings.

“I grew up old school,” he explained. “I’ve been detasseling corn since I was 12, shoveling hog manure, baling hay, straw, all of that. 

“And I want people to look me in the eye and tell me what you’re gonna do and then, by gosh, do what you say.”

Transparency with Stakeholders and Customers

Besides introducing himself to the communities through the press, Gauker plans to hold town halls around the basin that will be open to the public. In Greybull, the first town hall is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 8 p.m. at the Big Horn County Fairgrounds.

“Because there’s some distrust — and rightfully so — and I need to get out there, we’re going to schedule town halls in all the communities (we serve),” he explained.

Gauker and Flitner both said they were interested in finding new ways to meet shareholders and keep members informed about the processes going on behind the scenes. Members, Flitner reasoned, should be permitted to read the by-laws during a visit to the offices, not turned away. 

“They ought to know how their business operates, they might want to run for the board,” he said. “They need to know how we operate.”

A veil of secrecy, Flitner further acknowledged, did damage to the co-op by allowing rumors and accusations to fly alongside genuine criticisms of previous CEOs and business decisions made by the board.

“We’ve got to set that message that if you’ve got a question, if we can’t find the answer, we’ll get it for you or we’ll tell you dang-sure why we can’t,” he explained. “(We need) people walking away, whether they were satisfied with the answer or whether they weren’t, with no problem.

“In other words, they understand why we couldn’t give them what they wanted or they got what they wanted. But we don’t want anyone walking away mad and, as we do that every day, that’s going to be huge for us and that is kind of where we’re headed.”

One of the primary concerns pressing on both Gauker and Flitner is the need to perform for their customers and draw in both new and old co-op members. While transparency and public town halls are their first attempts to rebuild the trust they sense is broken between the co-op and its membership, becoming cost-competitive in the market is another way they hope to lure in customers.

Winning consumers is a vital step in not only making the co-op profitable, Gauker explained, but also secures the stock that shareholders have invested in over the years and will, in due course, lead to the return of the dividend checks that were cancelled by Carlholm.

“We need to be competitive enough that people don’t have to say, ‘Well, jeez, you know, it cost me a little, but I feel like I need to support the co-op,’” Flitner said of their outlook. “We need to have people saying, ‘Hey, did you see what the co-op’s offering?’”

Flitner continued, arguing that, despite the co-op’s recent history, the business plays a vital role in the local economy and community. Unlike big box stores or corporate farm store chains, the co-op is accessible, personal and owned by the local community.

“It is (the member and stakeholder’s) business,” Flitner said, “and we like and appreciate and rely on their support. We’ve got to do a better job of letting them know that we see it and appreciate it and want to continue to have it.

“From my point of view as a member and also as a new board member, you have my sincere regrets about whatever might have been done that offended (our customers), but please don’t just walk away from us. Tell us. Call me, whoever, tell us how to make it better and we will do our dangedest to make that happened or explain to you, at least, why we cannot. Hopefully, moving forward, we will start to mend some of these fences and get some of these people back and add to them.”

Gauker agreed, adding that one of his key priorities as the CEO was to ensure that not only customers are happy with how the co-op is run, but employees, too.

“When I go into a company, the first thing I want to do to get on my side is anybody that touches a customer,” he said. “If they touch a customer, I want to make sure they believe in the vision because if you lose those people, you lose business.”

Employee Satisfaction and Care

Both Gauker and Flitner said that caring for the 59 employees who remain is a top priority. However, Flitner added that they are sensitive to employees who lost their jobs during Carlholm’s tenure, including those who felt their dismissal was retaliatory or unfair.

“We’d like to say we’re trying to clean the slate,” Flitner said. “(But) you can’t just heal those wounds overnight. If there were something where we lost a good employee, all I can said is, if that job opens back up, come back to us and apply for it again. 

“Good employees are hard to find in any environment and especially in this one where you’re making deliveries in late hours of the day and cold,” he continued. “And so our job going forward is (to find) the best employees we can find, and we don’t care where they come from or where they’ve been.”

Gauker, who said his management style diverges from Carlholm’s, agreed with Flitner. 

“My philosophy has always been, you hire the best people you can and get the heck out of their way,” he said. “You wouldn’t give Picasso a paint-by-numbers set. I don’t care what happened, there’s no grudge. To turn the company around, everything’s open.”

The Future of
the Co-op Stores

During the interview, Gauker revealed that the Worland farm store would be divided and sold off in parcels with the building to subsequently follow. In addition, he said the company was exploring the possibility of selling off the corporate offices at the juncture of Highways 14-16-20 and 310; if the sale moves forward, the business offices will move into the former Greybull store location.

Beyond that, Gauker said they were amenable to receiving offers from potential leaseholders who might seek to utilise the company’s existing structures, but they were not actively looking for lessees. 

Both Flitner and Gauker said they understood the imposition and pain of losing the company farm stores, but stood by the decision, considering it to be a hard choice made in the present to secure the company’s long-term future.

“It was absolutely (the right decision),” Gauker said. “We wouldn’t have survived and I know it’s an inconvenience to people, but Tim’s seen the numbers and analysis, too.”

But, he added, nothing is set in stone and it remains possible that a conversation about bringing back one or two of the stores could be had in due course. There are many contingencies baked into a return for even one local store, however: members, new and old, must return and help keep the company afloat, the company itself must cut its costs and become profitable, and demand must be high enough to merit the expense.

If these benchmarks are met and sustained, then Gauker said he would be open to such a conversation. However, he stressed, that conversation was one that would have to be had in the future. Right now, his focus remains on stabilizing the company and correcting its course. In other words, it’s time for the turnaround artist to work his magic once again.

Town Hall Info

The first Co-op Town Hall for Big Horn County is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 8 p.m. at the Big Horn County Fairgrounds.