A Calgary-based chain of 26 Prairie ag equipment dealerships better known for handling Case IH iron is the new distributor for New Holland equipment west of Edmonton.
Rocky Mountain Dealerships, which bills itself as one of the biggest ag and construction equipment dealers in the country, has confirmed it will handle both ag and industrial equipment sales and parts for Case IH’s sister firm.
Rocky Mountain’s distribution region for New Holland covers customers within a 60-km radius around the city’s western side.
“The Edmonton area has been an open point for the New Holland brand and Rocky Mountain plans to capitalize on this sizeable market,” Rocky Mountain CEO Matt Campbell said in a release Tuesday.
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The region had been without a designated distributor for about the last year and a half, a company spokesperson said. The region was formerly covered by Selmac Sales, a Stony Plain, Alta. company that deals in Massey Ferguson, Challenger, SpraCoupe and Bourgault ag equipment.
Hammer Equipment, an arm of Rocky Mountain, has leased an Edmonton site on Highway 16 at 149th Street where it plans to consolidate the sales operations for New Holland farm and “light industrial” equipment and other shortline construction equipment.
“The use of existing Hammer Equipment staff to start this new location will result in the business being fully operational by mid-summer,” Campbell said in the company’s release.
Rocky Mountain began branching out into New Holland equipment in February, when it bought Roydale New Holland, a dealer at Red Deer. Roydale has since been rebranded as a Hammer Equipment site.
The company has thus officially doubled its roster of equipment dealerships across all brands to 26 since it went public in late 2007. Apart from Hammer, the company also operates the Miller Equipment and Hi-Way Service chains.
Rocky Mountain on Tuesday posted net profit of $1.8 million on net sales of $120.5 million for its first fiscal quarter ending March 31, up from $700,000 profit on $107.2 million of sales in the year-earlier period.
The increased sales and profit were chalked up to “strong organic growth on the agricultural side of the business, acquired revenue growth and improved operating efficiencies,” the company said in a separate release.
Industrial spinoff
Expanding from Case IH to New Holland may not be the farthest stretch for a dealer network, as both manufacturers are owned by the same parent, CNH Global, majority-owned by Italian automaker Fiat.
Fiat said last month it plans to spin off its CNH, Iveco and Fiat Powertrain operations into a second public company, dubbed Fiat Industrial, apart from the parent firm’s automotive business.
Rocky Mountain chief operating officer Brian Taschuk said Tuesday that Fiat’s plans have no effect on Rocky Mountain’s own operations selling Case or New Holland iron.
Business news service Bloomberg on Monday quoted Martin Richenhagen, CEO of Agco — the U.S.-based makers of Massey Ferguson and Challenger ag equipment — as saying Agco would be interested if Fiat Industrial were to then consider selling its CNH arm.
“If CNH would be sold, of course, we would look into that,” Bloomberg reporter Shruti Singh quoted the Agco CEO as saying. “If a company like that would become available, that would mean to us we would have a chance to be No. 1.”
However, he added, “I don’t think they are available.”
