Enns Brothers extends reach

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This article was published 19/08/2015 (3694 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After close to 60 years in the business, Enns Brothers Ltd. is again expanding its stable of John Deere dealerships.

Enns Brothers has acquired D.B. Murray Ltd. of Melita, making it the firm’s eighth Deere dealership.

Ray Bouchard, Enns Brothers president and CEO, said his company’s growth isn’t just about size, but rather, what that size can mean for its customers.

“Today, we have to be much more than equipment suppliers,” he said. “Convergence of equipment, technology and crop science is really changing the way you run your business. The larger organizations with more sales have more capability to invest in new technology and new resources to bring that value to the growers.”

Bouchard pointed to a recently opened 73,000-square-foot dealership in Portage la Prairie that includes its own agronomy lab. “That may be a first in North America,” he said.

Enns Brothers opened its first John Deere dealership in Sanford in 1956. It’s gone on to become one of the largest chain of Deere dealerships in Canada and one of the largest agricultural dealerships in Manitoba. In 2008, the company expanded into recreation products with a power sports site on Lagimodiere Boulevard in Winnipeg. It sells Ski-Doo and Sea-Doo products, the Can-Am Spyder, as well as boats, motors and RVs.

Bouchard hinted the company isn’t done expanding, either. “Continued consolidation is the vision for the future.”

The D.B. Murray location in Melita in the southwest corner of the province fills out the company’s geographic distribution.

In addition to its main location at McGillivray Boulevard and the Perimeter Highway in Oak Bluff, Enns Brothers also has locations in Steinbach, Morris, Arborg, Neepawa, Portage la Prairie and Brandon.

Enns Brothers plans to keep the Melita dealership open along with all the staff, including Dwayne and Ryan Murray.

“We are fortunate to be joining forces with such a well-run Manitoba company and we know that together, we will be even better able to serve the communities where we live and work,” Bouchard said.

The D.B. Murray dealership was founded in 1978 by Dwayne Murray, who is the fourth generation of the Murray family to own and operate a machinery dealership in Manitoba.

“After 37 years for D.B. Murray Ltd. and over 100 years for the Murray family in business in the southwest corner, we are excited to be moving forward as part of the Enns Brothers operation,” said Dwayne Murray, president and general manager.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition is part of an expected trend toward consolidation in the agricultural dealership business.

According to the publication Farm Watch, in 2011, there were 25 dealers in Canada with five or more locations that operated a total of 234 retail locations. By 2015, that group had grown to 35 dealers operating 357 total locations.

In the U.S., in 2009, there were about 150 dealer groups that operated five or more retail locations. By early 2015, that number had grown to nearly 190 dealership groups.

Farm Watch also referred to a much-quoted special report produced by Ben Cherniavsky, an analyst for Raymond James Canada, that said: “Most (manufacturers) still rely on a highly fragmented dealer network to get their product to market. In Canada alone, according to our analysis, there are more than 500 dealers representing over 25 different brands in 1,350 branches across the country.

“We believe this represents a highly inefficient distribution channel that is bound to consolidate in the future. Some of the contributing forces behind this trend include aging demographics, increasing capital/technical requirements and a softer macro backdrop that will force the industry to reconsider mergers and acquisitions as a primary growth driver.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca