Dealer News
Tumac Machinery: The owners of Tumac Machinery in Walla Walla, WA, plan to sell their Deere dealership, the last locally owned farm machinery operation of its kind in the community and one of a decreasing number across the country.
The dealership’s owners have signed a letter of intent with the Eugene-based Papé Group in a sale expected to close at the end of this month, according to Tumac President Tim Larkin.
Larkin declined to disclose the sale price of the dealership. He said most of the 30 employees will continue under the new ownership, minus a couple of administrative positions, including his own.
Hendy & Giroux Brothers: New York-Vermont based Deere dealers, Hendy Brothers and Giroux Brothers have merged and will operate under the new name of Mountain View Equipment.
Metzger Equipment Co.: After 120 years and four generations, Metzger Equipment Co. in Waterloo, IL will be closing its doors. Co-owner Jim Glessner told the Belleville News-Democrat the business that his great-grandfather founded in 1892 as a blacksmith shop is being sold after failed attempts to attract another supplier. He said the business had been cut from the network of Case IH dealerships a few years ago and was unable to continue as a dealer of Kubota tractors and parts.
“Case cancelled about a third of their dealerships,” Glessner said. “That was what their plan was. They figured that they needed to eliminate smaller dealers, which we are. We’re no longer a Case dealer, but we thought we could get by with Kubota alone and selling Case parts that we could get from a different source, but it wasn’t enough. It just wasn’t enough.”
Glessner said a sale is imminent but not yet completed. He declined to comment further on the pending deal.
The Tractor Place: A longtime family-owned lawn and garden business, The Tractor Place, has been purchased by Shearer Equipment, now a seven location dealer in Ohio. The Royalton Road store changed hands on Feb. 18, according to President Andrea Reedy.
“The small lawn and garden dealerships are becoming a thing of the past and are going away,” Reedy said. “It’s a big agricultural business. Also, the John Deere philosophy for dealers has changed. Deere is wanting $50 million in sales or larger. The market has changed. The industries have changed.”
Rimex: Titan Machinery supercharged its entry into Europe by buying the Bulgaria-based Rimex dealership network, boosting efforts to “capitalize on the global agriculture economy”.
U.S.-based Titan, which sells farm equipment sold under CNH Global brands such as Case and New Holland, said it expected to close next month the purchase of Rimex, which owns seven dealerships.
The deal represents Titan’s second in the Europe Union, a region it entered in November through the purchase of AgroExpert in Romania, realizing long-held ambitions to expand out of the U.S.