Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Dealership Sizes

foggy

foggy

5 year old buck +
I have my JD 3320 tractor in the shop to repair a leaking front axel seal. They now have 14 FOURTEEN locations all under one name Midwest Machinery. Yowser......thats allot of geography for this company. These dealerships have gotten just HUGE. Seems it's gotten like convenience stores.....you can't make it on "one" store anymore.

Sad, because to me, it seems like the opportunities are becoming severely limited for a young entrepreneur.

Midwestmachinery.com does have a good website to search for used stuff tho.....lots of variety.
 
I believe JD corporate forced the small dealerships out (or forced them to merge), two dealerships chains near me combined and now "Tractor Central" has 10 locations.

They control a lot of the territory in West Central Wisconsin I would have to drive a significant distance if I were to become unhappy and want to deal with a different dealer. To get outside of their area I would have to go south to Mauston or Hillsboro, east to Medford or Stratford, North to Turtle Lake or New Richmond or West into Minnesota.
 
My dad and brother have bought parts from Aitkin for quite a while and last year the dealership there joined up with Midwest Machinery. I think it was called Northwoods Equipment before. No issues yet that I have heard of yet but who knows how it will go.

My brother has done some equipment jockeying for local guys helping them find stuff online for good prices and picking it up for them. And he has talked to an older local guy about taking over his parts business. It will be interesting to see what happens with that.

My brother also works in custom harvesting for a guy out of Northwest MN and they buy from Titan Machinery. Titan has expanded a lot in recent years and they have over 100 dealerships in the U.S. now and 15-20 in eastern Europe. They are publically traded as well and that short term thinking that goes along with being publically traded doesn't work well when involved in agriculture! They have expanded a lot into construction equipment which should help, but they are starting to sit on a lot of inventory and the financing deals may put them into some tight spots.

RDO was publically traded back in the 90s and it did not work out too well for them. I think their dealerships are owned by the Offutt family again, maybe there was some private equity involved. I am sure that exact number is somewhere online but I think they are around 100 dealerships including some in Eastern Europe/Russia. Not sure how true it is but I have heard people say that John Deere won't let them open any more dealerships in the United States.

I think the RDO farming operations are close to 250,000 acres in 10+ states. Pretty impressive business to build!
 
Truthfully the whole deal sucks because now that they are all under one roof, they don't have to worry about keeping prices competitive with the dealer that is just 20 minutes away. We had very competitive pricing at the implement dealers in the area 4 or 5 years back, now that they are all combined, the prices are the same no matter which one you go to.:mad:
 
Looks like it is following the farming trend. Go big or go out. When I was growing up a 50 cow dairy farm was considered a good size farm. Don't see many that size any more.
 
I have heard some interesting stories from farmers who want to buy a specific piece of equipment from a JD dealer in a different area. Evidently they cannot buy it if they live in the wrong county??? this story had to do with Bobcats and JD skid steers. One dealer carried one brand the other dealer a different brand. I can't seem to remember the specifics.

One benefit to big dealerships is that they can quickly get parts out of the cities for specialized equipment. Word is a few dealers even have keys to the wharehouse.

All above is just stories form my clients.
 
sandbur said:
I have heard some interesting stories from farmers who want to buy a specific piece of equipment from a JD dealer in a different area. Evidently they cannot buy it if they live in the wrong county??? this story had to do with Bobcats and JD skid steers. One dealer carried one brand the other dealer a different brand. I can't seem to remember the specifics.

One benefit to big dealerships is that they can quickly get parts out of the cities for specialized equipment. Word is a few dealers even have keys to the wharehouse.

All above is just stories form my clients.
Click to expand...

If the dealers carried different brands that seems odd, but I don't know much about how they work. I can see that one chain of JD dealers in central MN wouldn't want to start competing with a chain of JD dealers from southern MN when selling new equipment. I would bet that JD even has some sort of rules about that.

My father in law farms in NW IA and he ticked off his local JD dealer because he found a used combine at a independent dealership north of the Twin Cities and saved himself close to 20% after delivery costs.

I have heard of some dealers that won't work to hard at selling equipment from people outside of the area. They prefer a farmer or hobbyist that is close enough to come back to them for the service work, not someone looking for a one time deal. That probably doesn't happen as much with the large dealership chains.
 
See....here is an issue. You become a big farmer....then get on the "outs" with a dealer for whatever reason.....maybe he becomes your ex-brother-in-law? :eek: Now how are you gonna run your program? This super big thing has it's share of problems....for everyone. Still...it seems the way has been "go big, or get out".

Of course the big farmers buy almost everything at their co-ops so that they can get low prices and share in the profits. But heaven forbid anyone talks about farming co-operatives. o_O
 
Tom-There are lots of dairy coops.
 
I have heard Titan might be in a deal of pain in the near future with all of the inventory they have sitting around! We are north of the cities and Ziegler is closest to us....so they get our business
 
It isn't just you guys - I see it here as well. My local Deere dealer owns those in several surrounding towns as well. Same thing with the co-op I go to for my seed and fertilizer. It's go big or go home!
 
j-bird said:
It isn't just you guys - I see it here as well. My local Deere dealer owns those in several surrounding towns as well. Same thing with the co-op I go to for my seed and fertilizer. It's go big or go home!
Click to expand...
It's a universal issue (problem) to me. MOST EVERYTHING has gotten huge, and the economies of scale are squeezing out the little guys. You see multiple stores and chains in: Grocery, hardware, paint, autos, pharmacy, tractors, gas, convenience, shoes, clothing, restaurants, hair salons, liquor, yadda yadda. All of these stores were mostly small town mom and pop run companies when I grew up. They all made a fair living at it. Not so much anymore. There is not much room for mom and pop organizations these days. Opportunities have evaporated for many. Middle class squeeze is "on" comrades. :eek::(

Seems to me......the last area for the common man is something where your licensed. Electricians, lawyers, plumbers, doctors, vet's, etc. But they are being absorbed into bigger organizations too.

OK.....I gotta resist getting political. Sorry. Rant over. :D
 
No foggy you are right. Hell, most doctors are linked to some mega practice or big city hospital plan and they now have chain dentists, electricians and the like as well. The ONLY place I see mom and pop places still grinding it out is in bar's and dinners. In my area if you want to find the best food in town just follow that weary looking farmer with hog crap on his boots to his beat to crap pick-up truck out of the rural king parking lot around lunch time. He will drive past all the "normal" places. The place he will go eat will look like it should be condemded and may even have a certain smell in the air - but the food is good and they treat you right (no numbered meals or talking into some stupid speaker). They call you buy name with a real smile and know what you drink - most of the time they simply bring it to you with out even asking (if they don't they are still in training and that's OK). Good portions of real food and surrounded by just plain folks. It isn't as cheap or fast as McCancer's #1 value meal of a heart-attack in a sack with a side of heartburn - but sure is a better experiance with better food. Some of the best eat'n places I know of are mom & pop places that the average person would refuse to step foot in. That's a good thing - keep that yuppie crowd outside! They can go get their $5 cup of coffee and over priced ham sandwich with the fancy bread and some cheese I have never heard of like it's going to impress somebody (if you see me in one of those places - I am being held there by force against my will - do the humane thing and just shoot me!
 
MoBuckChaser said:
Hahaha! Funny you say that. For a few years I was killing these Coops around here on prices. There was no other real competition in the Chemical and Seed business here. They tried everything to get rid of me. Calling chemical reps to shut me down, calling the state to inspect my books, my seed and chemical shed....you name it. But I stuck it out. Then about 5 years ago, a group of them had a lawyer send me a letter to offer to buy me out and sign a no compete clause for life. I could not do it. I want to be that mom and pop guy that helps keep prices in check for everyone whether they buy from me or not! Pretty stupid financially if I say so myself! On my part!:(
Click to expand...

John-I got a tremendous amount of respect for the guy that works his butt off and makes a living and it looks like you are one of those guys to me. Foggy has been down that road also.
 
sandbur said:
John-I got a tremendous amount of respect for the guy that works his butt off and makes a living and it looks like you are one of those guys to me. Foggy has been down that road also.
Click to expand...
I went into my own manufacturing biz in 1990. Never dreamed I would need to have international suppliers for my little firm. Wow....things changed fast.....and suddenly if you didn't source many things firom Asia....you'd be run over by your competition. It's like NAPTHA turned out the lights on American manufacturing IMO. That was signed into law by a bi- partisan congress and slick willie. Things ain't been the same since. THIS IS the huge sucking sound that Ross Perot said we'd hear. :(:confused:
 
It’s the Domino affect. I worked for the Parent Company of Porter Cable, Delta and several other power tool companies. Once the 800 lb gorilla in the power tool business (Black and Decker/Dewalt) started to source their tools from China you either followed or were out of business. Dewalt could sell a commercial quality cordless drill for basically what it cost us to manufacture the unit so either you followed the pack or you got out of the tool business. It was a very sad experience to see the closing of plants and transferring of know-how to china.

During those years I got the chance to experience some outstanding training on foreign markets. I was in a session on China where one statistic absolutely stunned me and for parents should be conveyed to their children. This is a quote, “At all times there are over 300 million unemployed young men in China looking for work”. That’s more laborers looking for work then there are people in the US and makes labor basically free in China. That was 20 years ago. Parents need to convey the importance of an education to their children as the pressure on wages from China, India etc. will be very high for many years.
 
Good information for the youth FB!
 
We see a fair amount of products for treating cattle that say, "Manufactured for..." without indicating which country of origin.

I prefer Brand names in most cases where I have company testing and support if not manufactured in USA, UK, Canada, or a few other trusted countries.
 
When I worked for the Aluminum mill.....we would compare how differently our costs and manufacturing cultures were.

Our guys here in the US received top pay for dangerous work; wore 1st class safety suits, OSAH heat shields, etc. VS.....In china, low wages, no protective gear, nor OSHA quality equipment. If you got burned or hurt....go home.....get a new man. End of problem. In some cases they actually poured molten metals while bare-footed. Unreal.

Apples and oranges production cost differences. Impossible to compete with those low costs.
 
MoBuckChaser said:
"What we need is more parents to kick some kids in the ass and get them outside learning what a good days work is. Then they will be rewarded with a good days pay!" MBC 2014
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you on this subject, the company I work at it seems like most of the younger crowd has little work ethics, they would much rather sit on their computer/cell phone than get out there and do something. Most of the kids that have good work ethics come from a farming background.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top