Albany Tractor Co., an 8-store John Deere dealership in Georgia, opened a new 78,315-square-foot store in Flint, Ga., and along with the new store the dealership introduced its new name — Flint Equipment Co. 

The search for a new location began back in the summer of 2010, according to a report in the Albany Herald.

“We just outgrew that (1709) South Slappey location,” Flint Equipment President/CEO Chris Cannon said of the decision to move and rename the local Deere dealership that had operated in Albany for more than 40 years. “We had, for the first time, an opportunity to build an ag dealership from scratch, from the ground up. Everything else in our company, we’d acquired.” 

Cannon told the Albany Herald the name change is cosmetic but the company thinks it will help create awork envinornment at all 8 stores that will better serve the changing needs of its customers. "The new store is going to allow us to do things no ag equipment dealership in the Southeast is able to do. We’ve got extra-wide and extra-tall service doors and bays that will allow us to work on the much larger equipment in our shop area," he told the paper. 

New features of the store include:

  • An 11,200-square-foot covered storage shelter that will keep equipment awaiting service out of the weather;
  • An extra parts storage facility;
  • A 1,640-square-foot wash-down building;
  • A 25,415-square-foot enclosed shop area with 24 regular-sized (or 12 very large-sized) service bays that can “accommodate any large row-crop equipment” and an additional 16,104 square feet of open shop space;
  • An 11,524-square-foot warehouse area that will allow staff to stockpile parts for all eight Flint Ag & Turf locations;
  • An 18,954 showroom with eight sales offices;
  • Conference and training rooms that allow for Deere’s Integrated Distance Training program;
  • Employee break rooms with microwaves, a conventional oven and refrigerator.

The name change to Flint Ag & Turf will impact now former Albany Tractor dealerships in Americus, Cordele, Sylvester, Cuthbert, Colquitt, Sycamore and Pelham. You can read the full story, here.