Cornerstone Mercantile Group
Physical commodity brokerage, built on the Mid-South's freight backbone.
About Cornerstone Mercantile Group
Cornerstone Mercantile Group is a physical commodity brokerage headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. The firm was built around a specific piece of geography. Five Class I railroads converge here, the Mississippi carries freight from this port toward Gulf Coast processing capacity, and three interstates intersect inside the metro. For a commodity like used cooking oil — low in value density, where freight cost per pound determines whether a load is profitable — that position is not a convenience. It is the economics. Volume collected in the Mid-South that can reach a refinery by truck, rail, or barge is worth materially more than the same volume stranded without those options, and a great deal of it is still being sold as though that were not the case. Our work is closing that gap, one relationship at a time.
We are brokers rather than traders. We do not take title, do not take possession, and do not trade against the parties we represent — a structure that eliminates the conflict present whenever an intermediary is also a principal. Our background is not the trading floor. It is inventory, sales, and moving physical product through supply chains where margins are thin and a supplier relationship is worth precisely as much as the last delivery. We consider that the right preparation for this market. Used cooking oil is not a paper commodity. It is barrels behind restaurants, tanks at collection yards, tankers on interstates, and specifications that either clear at the receiving gate or do not. The work is operational, and operations is where we come from.
Our Services
Buyer Sourcing
Supply is fragmented across thousands of generators, and qualifying it consumes time your desk does not have. We source across the Mid-South, confirm specification and origin documentation before an introduction is made, and present volume with the logistics detail required to reach a decision.
Seller Representation
You have volume. We establish what it is worth against current market levels, identify buyers who will commit to consistent offtake, and structure terms that hold across repeat loads rather than a single opportunistic sale. Many generators are still operating under agreements written when used cooking oil was a disposal cost rather than a feedstock.
Counterparty qualification
Most transactions in this market fail because one party was never in a position to perform. We verify entity standing, operating history, and demonstrated capacity to deliver or receive at the volume under discussion — before either side commits time to a negotiation. You will not spend three weeks on a deal that was never going to close.