Lawrence resident Bob Honse, 58, stepped down as president and CEO of Farmland Industries on Monday, clearing the way for the company’s executive vice president to lead the cooperative through trying financial times.

Farmland’s 22-member board of directors unanimously agreed Monday to name Robert Terry, 45, as the company’s president and CEO. The 13-year veteran of the company previously was an executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for the Kansas City, Mo.-based agricultural cooperative.

Terry assumed the position immediately. Honse  who worked for Farmland for 30 years, including a stint as general manager of the company’s Lawrence nitrogen fertilizer plant  said in a written statement he made a “personal decision” to retire.

He said he informed the board of his retirement plans last week, but the board asked him to begin his retirement immediately in order to ensure continuity in leadership as the company continues to work to solve its financial problems.

Sherlyn Manson, director of corporate communications for the company, said Farmland’s board is expecting a “seamless transition” in leadership.

“Mr. Terry has worked with Mr. Honse very closely for the last two years,” Manson said. “The board’s charge to Bob Terry is the same as it was for Bob Honse, and that is to continue working through our financial issues.”

The company has faced a shortage of cash to fund operating expenses for the past several weeks, in large part due to a slow fertilizer market and a shutdown of the company’s oil refinery business in Coffeyville for planned maintenance.

The cash-flow shortage forced Honse to concede in a filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission last month that Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection was a possibility for the company. Later, Honse said business had improved enough that bankruptcy was no longer an option.

On Monday, though, when Manson was asked whether bankruptcy was still an option, she did not specifically rule it out.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Manson said. “We’re working very hard to manage the issues independently. We’ll know much better where we are in a few weeks because that gets us close to the end of the spring fertilizer season.”

Manson said Terry reassured company employees when he spoke with them Monday.

“What he told the employees this morning is that Farmland has been around 73 years, and as an agriculture company we have seen good times and we have seen bad times, and we’ll see our way through these times,” Manson said.

Lawrence residents shouldn’t expect any changes on the company’s attitude toward its Lawrence fertilizer plant, which stopped production and released its 150-person work force approximately a year ago.

“The plant is in a condition that it is ready to reopen, but we have a lot of fertilizer plants that are down right now, and given the market conditions, I wouldn’t expect it to reopen anytime soon,” Manson said.

Manson said Terry also would continue to explore ways to make the company less dependent on its fertilizer-production operations. Manson said that may mean continuing to expand into the food business, which has produced strong earnings growth for the company during the first half of the company’s current fiscal year.

Attempts to reach Honse and Terry for comment were unsuccessful.