Wyanet, Ill. (AgPR) – SweetWater Technologies Powered by Gripp has launched a new business partnership opportunity for the next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs. The enterprise, a turn-key, owner-operator drone business, is targeting young agricultural partners carving out their own niche within the farming industry and providing them an active way to contribute to their family’s existing farm operations.
As it goes to market, the innovative, partnership-driven, drone application service will serve farmer clients in an Upper Midwest service area stretching from Nebraska to Ohio. Sweetwater will deploy the latest drone spraying technology to increase the accuracy and efficiency of crop inputs for their clients, but the key driving force is to engage young ag-minded professionals as partners in the venture.
“Sweetwater Powered by Gripp is here to create a business–an income producing business that has value and growth potential for our partners while providing exceptional service to our farmer clients,” said Founder Chad Gripp.
The company is founded on three key principles: growing and empowering agricultural communities through technology solutions; building economic growth through partnerships with future agricultural generations; and pursuing the foundational beliefs of GRIPP Drones -- growth, respect, innovation, precision and people.
“We are offering farmers the ability to save time and money by optimizing drone application of a wide range of crop inputs,” said Gripp. “Drone spraying is an exciting technology that builds on the original use of drones in agriculture for soil analysis, crop evaluation, weed monitoring, and more.”
The venture sprung from Gripp’s own experiences breaking into the agriculture industry. Hailing from a 6th generation Illinois farm family, he recognized while in college that there was minimal room economically for him to return to the family farm. So, Gripp started transitioning into farming by establishing a livestock hauling business, which turned into a custom farming and custom application business before expanding into retail fertilizers and biologicals sales.
“The whole idea of the need for young ag professionals to diversify their ag incomes came from my personal experience,” he said. “While it was a very rewarding challenge, I want to use the Sweetwater Powered by Gripp platform to provide an affordable and strategic path for the young people who want to call agriculture their full-time profession.”
By becoming a partner, Gripp says young ag professionals will have a unique opportunity to grow with the business and have “their own piece of the pie” while also giving those returning home a way to contribute economically to their family’s farm.
“Our goal is to leverage this into a strategy to keep many more of America’s family farms alive and well for new generations,” Gripp said. “We think it’s a real game-changer and we will be there with tools, processes and a support system every step of the way.”
That includes training and licensing, utilization of industry-leading systems, delivery and logistics for the Gripp-branded products, invoicing and account management tools as well as insights into business growth strategies.
“When it comes to reaching farmer clients, we are aggressively pursing a goal that we call ‘The Road to One Million Acres’ in a single year through our company’s drone applications,” Gripp said. “We’re going to help the farmer lower their cost of production by more efficiently deploying assets.
“Gripp Drones can cover more than 350 acres per day with one drone. That amounts to a total of 10,000 acres in just 6 weeks. What really makes this exciting is our partners will be working directly with farmers to increase their return on investments with more effective drone input application that leads to more efficient output per unit of input.”
Sweetwater Powered by Gripp will be accepting partnership applications until April 1. For more information, visit the Sweetwater Technologies website at www.sweetwatertechnologies.com.