Van Wall Equipment, a regional John Deere dealer group headquartered in Perry, Iowa, has announced the acquisition of four additional John Deere dealer locations. These new locations include Tama, Marshalltown and Grinnell with the acquisition of Southard Implement, and Oskaloosa with the acquisition of Drost Equipment.

Van Wall now owns and operates 15 John Deere locations and two powersports dealerships.

"We are pleased to be able to expand our presence in central and south central Iowa", said Don Van Houweling, President of Van Wall Equipment. "We have built a team at Van Wall that is dedicated to increasing the profitability of our producers while, at the same time, reducing their risk, making it easier to manage their operations, and giving them a competitive edge.

"We are very fortunate to have this opportunity to join with the outstanding teams at Southard's and Drost. For over four decades, these two dealers have built a legacy of being the first choice for the majority of producers in their region through the service they provide.

"We are excited by the value these acquisitions will bring to our customers. The additional scale will allow us to add more service and parts infrastructure, including field service trucks, and a significantly larger available parts inventory interconnected with a daily route truck.

"Van Wall Equipment will also bring additional services to the region with John Deere crop insurance, AgriTrend professional agriculture coaching, and AquaCheck soil moisture monitoring. We are also excited about bringing small wind energy solutions to the area with our Van Wall Energy division. We are committed to providing value to our customers that goes beyond the iron itself and are excited to share these innovative solutions.

"Our structure will retain its focus on local store management and employment. Local communities and counties, including FFA, 4-H, and local school districts, will remain a key part of our value system. We look forward to engaging with young people, parents, and educators in these communities to promote our John Deere Ag Tech scholarship program which has created dozens of full ride scholarships to Northeast Community College in Calmar, Iowa. When these young people graduate they can be debt-free and positioned for bright futures with technical careers at one of our facilities."

In addition to these new locations, Van Wall Equipment operates John Deere dealerships in Iowa at Ames, Ankeny, Colfax, Madrid, Nevada, Perry, Story City and Urbandale and at Olathe, Kan., Omaha, Neb. and Rock Island, Ill. Also, Van Wall operates two powersports dealerships with BMW, Honda, Polaris, Victory, and Yamaha in Des Moines and Indianola.