As the controlling players get whittled down to a few in the farm equipment manufacturing game, one of the smaller manufacturers says it is confident of its position on the team.
Saskatoon-based Flexi-Coil said it has not heard of any changes that will affect it directly due to the merger of agricultural machinery giants Case Corp. and New Holland N.V.
The resulting $12 billion company produces some competing lines of equipment including tractors and field tools. A portion of that machinery is produced by smaller companies that have been acquired in recent years by the two large players.
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A 35 percent share of Flexi-Coil was purchased by New Holland N.V. in September 1997 with an additional four percent acquired in September 1998 and a commitment to own 51 percent before 2002.
“We are not aware of any changes for us due to the deal … we were acquired first and I expect even if there are changes, it will take quite a while for us to find out,” said Darrel Schindel, of Flexi-Coil.
Possibly good news
He said his company might benefit by improved marketing opportunities in the lucrative American row crop regions.
Schindel said the fact that dealer networks are already servicing that market for other small companies fully or partly owned by one of the big players might be a competitive advantage for the Saskatoon company.
DMI is one such company, a tillage equipment manufacturer based in Goodfield, Illinois. Case bought it in November 1998 and DMI takes advantage of the Case dealer network.
Concord Inc. of Fargo, North Dakota, is a member of the new Case-New Holland family, producing equipment that competes with Flexi-Coil. In 1996 it too was acquired by Case. It produces minimum tillage seed drills, air carts and has developed precision agriculture controls.
“So far we have been told that the two parent companies will be keeping their own lines of farm machinery and dealers and we presume that includes us, but there may be some opportunities,” said Schindel.
New Holland also owns a tractor manufacturing plant in Winnipeg. Versatile tractors, both high horsepower four-wheel drives and multi-directional tractors, are produced there. Company representatives were not available for comment on the merger.
Job cuts
Flexi-Coil and Concord have both suffered under the poor agricultural economies and in turn reduced their work forces. Concord reduced staff to 60 from 200 while Flexi-Coil has 400 staff compared to a high of 1,700. Flexi-Coil representatives say they plan to increase that number to 700 in September.
For more information:
http://www.newholland.com/nh/press37.htm
http://www.casece.com/corporate/press/990517.html
