HUMBOLDT — Successful ag dealerships need to keep pace as farms and equipment scale up and become more efficient, said Doug Tibben, president of Pattison Agriculture.
“The growers out there are getting larger and we need to be able to handle the larger capacity and diverse people,” he said.
“Used to be a guy farmed and he never travelled. We’ve got lots of customers today that span over multiple stores in their distance as they keep growing. That’s what we’re now focused on, is how do we service them?
“We’re really focused on how do we stay aligned with what’s happening in the market? It’s not something that we directly control. It’s something that we are managing to stay on pace with what the market is doing.”
Construction is underway for the company’s latest expansion on a 30-acre land base east of Humboldt, Sask., along Highway 5.
The John Deere dealer currently operates 18 stores,16 in Saskatchewan and two in Manitoba.
“We’ve expanded in Humboldt and we’ve far exceeded the capacity that the current facility has, so it made sense,” Tibben said.
The main building will be 51,000 sq. feet, more than double the old building, plus an additional 16,000 sq. feet of storage.
The facility will be equipped with an 18-bay shop and three overhead cranes, which will increase efficiency and allow for larger equipment to be serviced.
A dedicated wash bay inside will also allow equipment to be cleaned year-round.
The expansion includes a 9,000 sq. foot parts department and a 7,000 sq. foot showroom.
There’s also a new training theatre with capacity to host more than 50 people, which Tibben said is the most unique aspect of the new facility.
Employee and stakeholder training and education are key priorities for the company, which currently has four dealerships equipped with in-house theatres, he said.
“The level of training is going up exponentially from what it used to. And that’s what we’ve focused on is how to make sure that not just our teams stay fully trained, but also the end users of the product. How do we keep them fully trained on an ongoing basis as technology keeps advancing quite quickly?”
“We’ve put in special training theatres for our staff to use on a regular basis, as well as the end user of the product — the drivers. It’s not the owner anymore. He might have 20 drivers, and how do you keep them all trained on the technology so they’ve taken advantage of it,” he said.
