Titan comes to town

Published 9:15 am Monday, March 1, 2010

Titan Machinery Co. has more than 70 locations across the Upper Midwest, and all of the expansions in this Fargo, N.D.-based company have been through acquisitions — except one.

That would be the new Albert Lea store.

Store manager Dave Garbisch said it will be the first time Titan Machinery has opened a store from scratch. The company refurbished an 11,000-square-foot building on East Main Street that had been a tractor-salvage facility. Titan encountered construction delays but opened for business Aug. 22 at Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services while it waited for its building to finish. On Dec. 1, it opened in its new digs.

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“I think the end product has been well worth the wait,” Garbisch said.

The store’s address is 77847 209th St., which is really a gravel road off East Main Street stretching from Erlandson Implement to Pro Manufacturing. It is east of Interstate 35’s Exit 11.

It is the first time a New Holland dealer is serving the Albert Lea area since Hayward Implement went out of business six years ago. Titan Machinery sells New Holland products for Freeborn County, Faribault County, Steele County, half of Blue Earth County and half of Mower County in Minnesota and Winnebago and Worth counties in Iowa. The dealer employs 10 people.

Garbisch took early retirement after working for New Holland for 27 years. He was recruited by Titan and began working as a regional manager in February 2008. Looking at sales figures and noting the brand loyalty farmers had, he saw a potential for an Albert Lea dealer.

According to Garbisch, $41.6 million of new farm equipment was sold to ag producers in 2008 in the region. And he noted New Holland owners were traveling long distances to go to dealerships.

“A new dealership in this area really serves a need. We have to do what’s right for our customers,” he said.

He and his wife have all their stuff in boxes as they make the move from Northfield to Albert Lea.

He said New Holland has a reputation for innovation, having created the twin-rotor combine in the 1970s, skid loaders with a boom that can lift straight up in the 1970s and tighter-turning axles for tractors in the 1990s.

The store has a 6,000-square-foot service shop and a 5,000-square-foot front end. The front end contains a parts department, sales offices and a main room with shelves holding common machinery needs from oil to filters. The store is on a 9-acre parcel.

Garbisch said New Holland offers tractors ranging from 18 to 500 horsepower. The line also offers hay balers, harvesters and conditioner mowers. The dealer also sells Salford tillage equipment and grain carts from brands such as Brent and Parker.

People needing a few hand tools also can save a trip if they need to pick up, for instance, a crescent wrench. And, naturally, a farm implement dealers has to sell some farm toys.

Garbisch said the store will hold a grand opening the week of March 15. Factory representatives will be on hand to meet with farmers.

Titan Machinery was founded in 1980. It has dealers in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana selling and leasing Case IH or New Holland construction or agriculture machines. It trades publicly on the NASDAQ as TITN.

New Holland has gone through a few hands in its history. Founded as blacksmith Abram Zimmerman’s shop in 1895, it became New Holland Machine Co. in New Holland, Pa., in 1903 when Zimmerman developed an engine that didn’t need its water drained before cold nights. The company grew as the farms became mechanized and was purchased by Sperry Corp. in 1947, which became Sperry Rand in 1955. When the Burroughs Corp. completed a hostile takeover of Sperry Rand in 1986, the New Holland line was sold off to Ford Motor Co. It saw New Holland’s farm machinery as a good match with Ford’s line of tractors. In 1997, Ford sold New Holland to the Turin, Italy-based Fiat Group. Fiat purchased Case International Harvester in 2000 and formed the company CNH Global. The CNH, of course, stands for Case New Holland. CNH in North America maintains headquarters in Racine, Wis., and New Holland, Pa.

About Tim Engstrom

Tim Engstrom is the editor of the Albert Lea Tribune. He resides in Albert Lea with his wife, two sons and dog.

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