Farm equipment dealers across North America are merging and now so are their associations.
Members of the Canada West Equipment Dealers Association and the SouthWestern Association, the two largest associations in Canada and the United States, have voted to merge into one organization.
As of Sept. 1, the two will become the Western Equipment Dealers Association, the first of many equipment dealer association mergers across North America, predicted its new chief executive officer, John Schmeiser.
“The demographics of dealer networks are changing,” said Schmei-ser. “We’re changing our structure to remain relevant to the large dealer groups today and in the future.”
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Schmeiser will split his time between Calgary and Kansas City.
He hopes all 17 equipment dealers associations across North America will eventually merge into one large organization.
“We hope we will be a model other associations will look at and be-come part of,” he said.
“Hopefully this will give others a template to follow.”
The 400 Canadian farm equipment dealers that now belong to the Canada West Equipment Dealers Association will soon be part of a larger 1,000 dealer network that represents farm, industrial and outdoor power equipment dealers.
The merger was a push by member dealers such as Titan Machinery in the U.S. and Rocky Mountain Equipment in Canada to become more relevant. Titan belongs to six equipment dealer associations across its geographic area.
“Equipment dealer consolidation is continuing at a rapid pace and their needs are changing.”
Schmeiser said the larger organization can offer dealers more educational online training programs and a stronger overall organization.
