FARMINGTON — Farmington Farmers Union’s 100th year was a successful one, directors and shareholders were told at Tuesday’s annual meeting.

Sales were up about $100,000 in 2012, the organization’s centennial, store manager Larry Donald said Thursday.

Store sales amounted to $2,548,190 last year. Combined with the $173,172 for rental operations, the total income was $2,721,363, compared to $2,632,905 in 2011.

After the review of income and expenses, it was decided to pay 10.5 percent, up 2.5 percent more than last year, to shareholders based on purchases, he said.

Returns have ranged from a low of 2 percent to as high as 14 percent, depending on profit.

Directors Thomas Nelson and L. Herbert York, were re-elected to another three years.

The organization started in the summer of 1912 as the Maine Central Produce Exchange, incorporated that summer and started selling shares at $10 a piece, the same price as today.

It was developed to help farmers buy supplies, Lawrence Yeaton, president of the board of directors, previously said.

The name was changed to the Farmington Farmers Union in 1917. Land was purchased on Front Street the next year, and a committee formed to start building. The amount of stock rose from 1,000 to 4,000 shares.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the store was enlarged twice and sold a line of grain, groceries and clothing. The groceries and clothing items have been replaced with hardware, paints and garden supplies.

The store became a True Value franchise in 1982 and started the rental business in 1983.

The seven-member board now hires a manager and assistant manager to run the store with about 15 employees.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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