Photo by Howard Owens
The cost of doing business has doubled since the pandemic, said Tim Call, former owner of Empire Tractor, while explaining why he decided to sell the company to Champlain Valley Equipment, a family-owned group of farm equipment retailers based in Vermont.
"He (Brian Carpenter, owner of Champlain) is a great businessman, a great person, and has been great to work with, so I knew that he would take care of our employees and our customers the way that I wanted them taken care of," Call said.
Call started in the industry working for his father's store in Batavia, but when International Harvester was acquired by Case, Call's father sold the business to Case, so Tim Call took a job with Monroe Tractor.
One day, he needed a new belt for his Troy-built rototiller and that required him to visit Tri-County Tractor, owned at the time by Carl Colantino.
Tim had heard the business had been sold so he asked about it and Colantino said the deal fell through.
"Why? You interested?" Colantino asked.
They talked and Call decided Colantino was asking too much for the business.
"Two weeks later, my mom passed away from cancer. That made me start thinking, what am I going to do? Am I always going to work for somebody else here?" Call said. "I got a chance to own one of the four major farm equipment dealers in United States, and a Ford New Holland dealership at the time. It took a while, but the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 1994 we actually closed the deal."
In 2000, Tri-County merged with Finger Lakes Tractor and RMC Equipment, forming Empire Tractor.
About eight years ago, Call bought out his seven other partners, and a year later, he brought in Phil Doty as a partner.
Both Call and Doty remain with Champlain. Call is managing the Batavia store and Doty manages Watertown and Canton.
Since the pandemic, supply chain issues, new tariffs, especially steel tariffs, higher insurance costs, higher wages, and other rising costs have increased business expenses. Since no Call family member is in line to take over the business, and Call turns 65 next month, it seemed like a propitious time to sell.
"It was to the point where, if I were going to stay in business, I'd have to invest a couple million more," Call said. "Where am I going at my age, with nobody coming on? So I just felt it was best, especially when we're putting up against private equity companies like Land Pro, Sydenstricker Nobbe Partners, United Turf and Ag, and all these other people. So, it seemed like the time was right, but I could still work. I still like what I do, and I'll still be here to make sure that our employees and customers around here are taken care of."
As for market conditions, Call said, "The price of the equipment is 50 to 75% higher than it was, and the freight to get it here is twice as much. The setup to put (equipment) together is twice as much. You know, all our costs are up, like everybody else's. All the employees have to get more money. Insurance is going through the roof. It's just the investment to run the business is a lot more than what it was."
He added, "Everybody raised their prices when steel went up. Everybody raised their prices with freight when fuel prices went up. Nobody's dropped. Their prices go up. They don't come back down."
There are bright sides to the industry, though. Locally, for example, dairy farms are doing well, Call said.
"Right now everybody's saying ag is down. Farming is down," Call said. "Well, they're talking about corn and soybean, and that's mostly the midwest, and any cash grain farmers around here are down, but the dairy farmers are doing pretty well right now, so we're a little more immune to the swings up and down."
Call has known Carpenter, a second-generation owner of Champlain, since Call took over Tri-County. They were part of the same Dealer 20 group (a group of dealers from all over the U.S. and Canada who share best practices and business tips).
Except for Dixie Chopper, a more residential-oriented product, the Champlain product line is much like Empire's -- New Holland, Oxbo, Great Plains, and Woods Equipment. (A full list of lines carried by Champlain can be found by clicking here).
"We've got Kioti, and they've done a great job and got a zero-turn mower. They've got gas and diesel," Call said. "We handle the commercial zero-turn mowers. We don't handle really residential.
Call is confident customers won't notice much difference with the new owner. Most of the Empire employees remain, the equipment lines and service centers remain the same. Other than new cards and new computer systems, not much has changed, Call said.
"They're very customer-focused, like we were. They want to take care of the customers," he said.
