The number of dealers — particularly Deere dealers — who have expanded their footprint non-contiguously is on the rise. 

On June 20, Arizona-based Stotz Equipment and Ontario-based Premier Equipment announced the two firms were partnering to strengthen and position both companies for growth. The combined group will have 33 stores."

Tom Rosztoczy, president of Stotz Equipment, says Premiere is constantly one of the top 5 Deere dealers in Canada. The group currently has 4 owners, but one is looking to exit the business and another has health issues. Rosztoczy says in order for Premier to grow it was going to need help with ownership succession.

"Ultimately, what they were looking for was a capital partner that could help them solve their ownership succession problems and then prepare them for the growth that they and Deere would like to see."

"So that would be their motivation. Stotz's motivation would be we've been interested in growing in the John Deere business pretty much forever, and that's why we've already grown in the John Deere business. We've just been waiting for the right opportunity."

"And I think the first choice for growth for anybody is to grow contiguously, but we just haven't had a chance to do that. And I think long-term in the John Deere world, it looks like anyway that the long-term players are probably going to have two footprints that are both DOT size footprints in John Deere's eyes, and so this gives us the opportunity to create a second footprint, which we don't have today. Number one."

"And number two, I think the challenges of going so far away and the challenges of going to a different country are all significant challenges. And to be honest, a year ago if you would've asked me, I would've told you, "No, we're not going to do that." I think the reasons that we are doing it is because we've just found a significant amount of alignment between how we think about the business and how Premier thinks about the business."

"In our minds, I think that helps us overcome the fears or challenges of the distance and the border, that there's just so much alignment in how we think about the business, that it'll make those... That's ultimately the biggest challenge in something like this, is culture. If the culture's already really, really well-aligned, then I think the rest won't be that difficult to overcome."

The partnership marks an industry-first common ownership of Deere dealerships on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border. The partnership is expected to be finalized in September 2024 pending all necessary approvals and due diligence. 

Currently, Stotz is No. 24 on the Farm Equipment Dealer 100 list. With the addition of the Premier stores will bump the new group up to No. 10,  tied with Sydenstricker Nobbe Partners, which also recently announced non-contiguous expansion with its acquisition of Cazenovia Equipment in New York. 

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