COTTON TRUST

Trust Enjoys Profitable 2009 Season

The Texas Cotton Ginners’ Trust will celebrate the completion of another profitable year at its Annual Meeting in April in Lubbock.

The Trust was formed by the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association in 1994 in response to the Texas gin industries’ demand for stable, affordable workers’ compensation insurance coverage.

In the 16 years since its founding, the Trust has grown to provide coverage to 78 percent of the gins in Texas as well as other agricultural businesses across the state.

The Trust’s Producer Program now offers the protection of workers’ compensation coverage for employees of cotton producers who gin with members of the Trust.

The Trust provides its members both hard savings in dividends paid back and “soft” savings in premiums the members never had to pay to a commercial insurance carrier because the Trust was there to provide coverage in times of a restricted market.

The Trust paid $3,500,000 in dividends in 2009, the third record dividend in 3 years.

More than $14.5 million has been returned to the members that participated in the first 13 years of the Trust’s program. Nearly 18 percent of premiums paid in those years has been returned.

The Trust’s Safety Credit, which is available to member gins, returned an additional $331,000 to members who qualified in 2009.

The Trust continues to improve safety service to members and their employees through its sponsorship of the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association Safety Seminars, on-site safety training, its Certified Safety Trainer (CST) program, weekly safety training bulletins and other safety initiatives.

This year’s Annual Meeting of the Trust is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 9, in the Banquet Hall of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center. Please visit the Trust at the Trade Show in Booth 1.