A team of Agriterra Equipment staff, flanked on the left by Brian Taschuk, president and CEO of the company’s 12 branches, and on the right, by Lloydminster branch manager Kim Wildeman, posed for a photo at a recent grand opening. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
The sun came out for the grand opening of Agriterra Equipment’s new farm equipment shop along with up to 250 invited guests, employees and visitors.
The special event was held last Thursday with a ribbon cutting, door prizes and tours of the 15,500 sq. ft. facility in the refitted former Trans Canada Truck Wash off Highway 16 in Blackfoot.
“It’s very exciting. The weather is co-operating, the yard is full of equipment, so hopefully, we’ll have lots of people out and see what we’ve done to the building,” said branch manager Kim Wildeman.
The opening was timed just ahead of farming seeding with early sales of their Morris seeding drills and Fendt tractor units.
“We’re basically concentrating on that, getting them out and getting them ready for farmers to get out in the field,” said Wildeman.
“The farmers will be itching to get in the field pretty soon.”
Agriterra is primarily an AGCO farm equipment dealership and the owner of equipment brands such as Fendt, Massey-Ferguson, Hesston and Challenger.
The company also sells CAT Ag products and Bourgault seeding systems throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan and various support equipment that goes with those primary product lines.
“We’re 10 years old,” said president and CEO, Brian Taschuk at the grand opening.
“Ten years ago, I bought our first store in Stony Plain and then we’ve expanded to 12 stores over that time.”
Taschuk’s vision was to buy up a lot of single AGCO dealerships in Western Canada from owners with retirement or succession plans in place, to create a bigger company in a competitive market.
“It helps by having 12 stores being able to share resources, share people, and share capital to compete in the modern farm community,” he said.
The Lloydminster store opened in November after relocating their long-standing Dennill’s Agricenter from Dewberry.
“The facility was not big enough to handle the growth we’re going for, so, we relocated here to Lloydminster, found a great location right on the highway in the middle of our territory that’s got the space for us to grow,” explained Taschuk.
“It’s taken us a year to do the renovations and get it up to speed, so it’s a huge project.”
The new store is in the County of Vermilion River, which Taschuk says is one of the biggest farm equipment counties in Alberta.
“It’s a place we have to be and we’re really excited by it,” he added.
Apart from Agriterra’s well-known line of products and services, Wildeman thinks they have a competitive niche in Lloydminster with their experienced staff.
“We’ve got three guys with over 20 years of experience and top-notch knowledge,” said Wildeman.
“I believe it’s our sales, service and parts; it’s tough to find people in this industry with 20-plus years of experience and more than one person as well.”
The renovated shop includes a large parts and service centre for equipment.
“We’ve got lots of room in our back shop to accommodate all our customers’ needs, six technicians, and technical support service guys as well. We’re fully equipped to handle whatever comes our way,” said Wildeman.
“Any equipment nowadays is coming with a lot of technology aspects. You’ve got to have some pretty good guys with lots of knowledge.”
