With 9 locations in Iowa, Vetter Equipment is currently making significant investments in several of its stores, including the facilities in Denison and Nevada. According to the company, the Denison store now operates from a state-of-the-art, 55,000 square foot facility.

Sydenstricker Implement Co. celebrated 69 years as a family owned and operated business with the grand opening of its new facility in Mexico, Mo., in January. More than 2,000 people attended the event.

Van Wall Equipment has recently been part of three new service shop construction projects that range in size from 12,000-15,000 square feet. According to Don Van Houweling, president, the electricity for heat and light for the new facilities is being generated by wind turbines.

In March of 2012, Brikey's Farm Store's Henry, Ill. location completed its new 41,000-square-foot building, which sits on 17 acres. The new building was designed as a multi-propose building, keeping resale in mind, according to Jerry Read. The facility includes a top-notch expo center that is used for customer clinics. Another unique feature is the wash bay, which can fit eight combines in it. The floor is sloped outward so all the water drains to the sides. Read says this makes it possible to clean two to three machines in a row without the sludge clogging up the grate. Since the floor is mostly flat, he says that keeps the floor drier since the plumbing isn't directly under it. In addition, the mud on the floor can be scraped up at the end of the day.

Ben Garton reports that the dealership recently remodeled its Newman, Calif., facility. "We now have an expanded parts department, additional offices and a training room," says.

Gary Dible, operations manager for 21st Century Equipment, sent along photos from several modernization and expansion projects that the Kansas-Nebraska-Colorado John Deere dealership group has finished or which are in process. Among these, Dible lists:

You may recall that we featured the beautiful new Hiawatha Implement facility in our April/May 2012 issue (please see Farm Equipment, April/May 2012, "Hiawatha Implement's New Store Combines Form & Function,"p. 28-36). We weren't able to run all of the photos in the available space, so here's a look at some other unique features of that very unique dealership.

"Mitas' 2012 sales in North America were the best ever," said Pavel Charvat, president of Mitas Tires North America. "The North American operations represent 10% of all Mitas' sales."? Mitas reached total worldwide 2012 sales of $592 million (USD). "Mitas brings tire manufacturing closer to the farmer," Charvat added.

Continued Expansion Extends Company’s North American Manufacturing Capabilities, Increases Distribution Efficiencies and Creates 200 New Jobs

In the last few issues of Farm Equipment, including this one, we've covered dealer succession planning in some depth. One of the concerns expressed by many of those getting ready to step aside is that the new generation that's stepping up into positions of ownership have never been through the really tough times. If you think about it, no one under 46 years old was a working professional during Ag's Great Depression of the 1980s when most dealers couldn't sell their souls to the devil, let alone a tractor to a farmer.