In mid-August, Birkey’s Farm Store, a Case IH dealer with locations in Illinois and Indiana, acquired Farm Pride, which had stores in Arthur, Shelbyville, Casey, Newton, and Mattoon, Ill. The acquisition took Birkey’s total stores to 16.
For some folk, it’s automatic — any and all industry mergers and/or significant acquisitions are bad, anti-competitive, designed to squeeze out smaller competitors and must be stopped at all costs. At least they must be closely scrutinized to determine who might be harmed and how much damage might such a transaction cause.
Farm Equipment asked consultant Floyd Jerkins what specific advice he’d give a dealer on what to do in his first 100 days after inking a deal. To Jerkins, it’s about stabilization, integrating controls and processes, and addressing financial shortcomings.
Over the past 15 years, Champlain Valley Equipment, a 5-store New Holland, Case IH and Kubota dealership in Vermont, has acquired six other dealerships. In several cases, the selling owner was offered a new position within the dealership. Brian Carpenter, general manager of Champlain Valley, says making the transition from owner to staff member has gone smoothly in each case.
To complement this SHOWCASE’s report on what happens after the ink dries on a dealer acquisition (Dealer Acquisitions Report), I’d been exploring the major lines’ resources, checklists and protocols to help dealers integrate newly acquired stores. With the exception of John Deere (declined to participate), the majors supported the topic and cooperated with materials.
Because dealers have had a wide variety of experiences when it comes to handling matters following the acquisition of another dealership, there was little if any clear-cut consensus on one “best” approach to some of the biggest and most critical issues involved.
While Champlain Valley Equipment doesn’t have a script for acquiring another dealership, planning early and addressing challenges as they appear has led to six smooth dealership transitions for the company.
While Champlain Valley Equipment doesn’t have a script for acquiring another dealership, planning early and addressing challenges as they appear has led to six smooth dealership transitions for the company.
Agriterra Equipment, an 8-store AGCO dealer in Alberta, was born out of an acquisition in 2013. Brian Taschuk started the dealership by acquiring Selmac Equipment, which was a 3-store operation. Since that initial acquisition, Taschuk has acquired another dealership every 6 months. Today, the dealership has grown to 8 stores. “We’re on a constant integration journey every month,” he says.
You know that you’ve got a complex subject when a canvassing of experts stirs up an array of answers to identical questions, even from professionals in the same organization.
One could argue that nearly every dealer in North America will be on one side or the other of an acquisition in the years ahead. This report focuses on the first 100 days of integrating a new store into another dealership group following an acquisition, and what it take to successfully meld one organization’s culture into another with a minimum or no loss of performance.
In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, Marc Johnson, principal with Pinion, provides 4 factors that will be important for dealers to watch in 2025 that will impact their business.
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