A deal to make Brandt Tractor the exclusive dealer for Topcon geopositioning equipment clear across Canada has been resuscitated.
Regina-based Brandt announced Tuesday it has closed its previously-announced deal to buy the assets of GeoShack Canada — two weeks after Dallas-based GeoShack declared that “a mutually beneficial deal… has not been attained.”
GeoShack has been the “long-time exclusive supplier” for Topcon Positioning Systems equipment in Ontario, including sales, service, and rentals of GPS and other equipment for the ag, construction, survey and engineering industries, through locations in Toronto, Ottawa and London.
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California-based Topcon’s agricultural products include precision seeding, spraying and harvest equipment as well as autosteer and guidance systems.
Brandt, which already had a “pre-existing Topcon footprint” in Western and Atlantic Canada and last month made a deal with Topcon for distribution rights to the Quebec market, is now “the exclusive dealer for Topcon Positioning Systems and other complimentary tools and technology for the entire Canadian market.”
GeoShack, in a separate release Monday, said the deal also makes Brandt “likely Canada’s largest geopositioning technology supplier.” Its staff in Ontario are employed by Brandt “effective immediately,” GeoShack added.
“The combination of… GeoShack’s Ontario-based team and Brandt’s national infrastructure is going to be powerful for our Ontario customers,” GeoShack president Scott Beathard said in the same release.
“We’ve worked very hard to build strong relationships and a solid operation in the Ontario market over the last 16 years and we’re completely confident that Brandt will continue to grow the business and provide unmatched value for clients in that market.”
“We’ve worked hard to make this a great deal for our survey, engineering and construction customers in Ontario and Quebec,” Brandt CEO Shaun Semple said Tuesday.
“Brandt’s 56 locations from coast to coast to coast coupled with GeoShack’s strategic locations in Ontario will position Brandt, with the industry’s largest team of experts, to provide an unmatched degree of aftersales support,” Brandt said.
Brandt’s deal with GeoShack parent Ultara Holdings also includes Inteq Distributors, a “complementary business” with a distribution centre at Exeter, Ont. providing sales and service on “an extensive selection of construction instruments, optical equipment, survey supplies and accessories.”
Both the GeoShack and Inteq brands and operations in Ontario will be “transitioned” into Brandt Positioning Technology, the company said.
Neither Brandt nor GeoShack said exactly why the deal had appeared to die late last month, nor did either company say what had happened to revive it. Privately-held Brandt did not disclose the financial terms of the final deal.
Formed in 1995, GeoShack expanded to Ontario in 2003 when it merged the Toronto- and Exeter-based businesses of Laserline Ontario with those of three other independent distributors in Texas, Ohio and Michigan.
Outside Ontario, GeoShack will still have 16 U.S. locations in eight states. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network
