John Buhler sees the acquisition of Flexi-Coil Ltd. as a strong-arm tactic by industry bullies intent on having their way with independent farm implement manufacturers.
“If they can’t drive us out of business by not allowing us to sell product to their dealers, then they just buy you out,” said the president of John Buhler Inc., a Winnipeg-based short-line manufacturer.
Buhler is referring to last week’s acquisition of Flexi-Coil by CNH Global, a company formed when New Holland NV and Case Corp. merged.
A consistent complaint of independent short-line manufacturers like Buhler is that the major players such as CNH and John Deere put pressure on their implement dealers to carry only their lines.
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New legislation in Saskatchewan helps prevent that. The legislation allows dealers to carry more than one line of farm equipment and forces manufacturers to get a court order before they can cancel any dealer contracts.
Buhler is confident the Saskatchewan legislation will be adopted by neighboring provinces, but it may be too little too late.
He said 75 percent of the farm equipment sold in Canada is made in the United States and if major manufacturers continue to gobble up independent operators like Flexi-Coil and Versatile Farm Equipment Co., there will soon be no prairie-based manufacturing business.
Ross Giles has been in the farm equipment business for 30 years. His business, Bromar Enterprises Ltd., distributes Canadian short-line equipment to dealers in the U.S. He said what has happened to Flexi-Coil is sad, but inevitable.
“You get to a size where you’re a force in the industry and perhaps the alternative is what has happened.”
