The Quarterly Messick's Report

[Hay Dude]

That’s what happened in the car, truck, and construction equipment business.

Manufacturers really don’t want to deal with small dealerships if they can avoid it. It’s not very efficient. Thus the evolution of the mega dealers.

Thats bad for the consumer. The mega regional dealers know many of their customers will only go so many miles to save money. Then even if they do save money, the transportation costs eat up all the savings.
Its a sad state of affairs for farmers and heavy equipment users.
Everything is going to big regional providers, health care, vehicles, appliances, equipment, even service providers.

 

[Torvy]

Thats bad for the consumer. The mega regional dealers know many of their customers will only go so many miles to save money. Then even if they do save money, the transportation costs eat up all the savings.
Its a sad state of affairs for farmers and heavy equipment users.
Everything is going to big regional providers, health care, vehicles, appliances, equipment, even service providers.

I think there is a happy medium somewhere. Economies of scale can be helpful. If it were my business, I would have a spoke and wheel setup. One central dealership with a handful of smaller lots. The main dealership has all of the expensive bells and whistles and has the highest level mechanics who can handle the difficult issues (and wider variety of parts in inventory). The smaller ones provide more basic services and parts/sales. If they get a tricky repair in, they can run it to HQ on a quasi-regular run. For farm equipment, this is probably a 100 miles or less radius between HQ and satellites. Here, the local JD operation is part of a super regional operation spanning nearly 30 stores and about a 200 mile radius...they also have a similarly large region in the NE. At least down here, I have found them to be unresponsive to small operations.

 

[Hay Dude]

I think there is a happy medium somewhere. Economies of scale can be helpful. If it were my business, I would have a spoke and wheel setup. One central dealership with a handful of smaller lots. The main dealership has all of the expensive bells and whistles and has the highest level mechanics who can handle the difficult issues (and wider variety of parts in inventory). The smaller ones provide more basic services and parts/sales. If they get a tricky repair in, they can run it to HQ on a quasi-regular run. For farm equipment, this is probably a 100 miles or less radius between HQ and satellites. Here, the local JD operation is part of a super regional operation spanning nearly 30 stores and about a 200 mile radius...they also have a similarly large region in the NE. At least down here, I have found them to be unresponsive to small operations.

Thats Messicks! (and Atlantic Tractor and Hoobers)

 

[Torvy]

Unfortunately, Messicks is a bit too far from here. I like the business model. I also like that they carry multiple brands.

I like the way the guy at Larry Stovesand equipment around Nashville does his ads. Prices are actually included many times. He carries Kioti and TYM. I have no idea if they are as good as they sound, but up front pricing allows someone to call or move on without wasting time chasing a deal that will never happen.

 

[Hay Dude]

Messicks is very professional and they probably have more parts in stock than anyone.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Messicks is very professional and they probably have more parts in stock than anyone.

That's because they're really in business to sell parts. They make far more money out of those parts then they do the equipment sales.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

So I missed the start of this. What do you all what to know?

Few questions to what I saw so far.

Yes.. we use a hub and spoke model. We have 5 stores, 1 Hub with 4 spokes (which is not a lot by todays standards)

Yes, the new building was nutty expensive. We where super fortunate to lock in all the pricing, financing, etc pre-pandemic. I can't imagine how different it would look today. What we did is affordable with our typical margins from the old location. We are not "raising prices to pay for it" (not to say we're not seeing prices going up, but the reasons have nothing to do with the building).On the financial side, most of the new building costs are recovered from efficiencies of people doing their jobs better.

Yes, we do embrace the 'super store' model. Inventory is one thing, people are the other. You don't find experienced people in this industry, you have to grow them. The super store model with company trainers, training facilities, etc is really key to making this all work. We've made a big deal out of the Mount Joy hub store, but we've been investing in all our stores to make them better places to work. Hiring is hard right now, we need to invest in our facilities so we're the best place to work.

Lastly thanks. I can't say that enough. I almost can't believe myself whats happening here. I'm proud of our people and what they are doing, and just blown away by all the people who choose us. The amount of support and encouraging words from everyone visiting the store, sending emails, coming to open houses was way beyond what we ever expected.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

and Yes, we are selling the old home store. Its currently under contract.

pretty sad for many of us, my Grandfather built that location and my Dad and Uncle grew that location for nearly their entire careers. I worked there as a kid, helped with open houses, etc. Lots of memories. We had simply outgrown the site and had no more room to continue expanding.

 

[jezreel]

So I missed the start of this. What do you all what to know?

Few questions to what I saw so far.

Yes.. we use a hub and spoke model. We have 5 stores, 1 Hub with 4 spokes (which is not a lot by todays standards)

Yes, the new building was nutty expensive. We where super fortunate to lock in all the pricing, financing, etc pre-pandemic. I can't imagine how different it would look today. What we did is affordable with our typical margins from the old location. We are not "raising prices to pay for it" (not to say we're not seeing prices going up, but the reasons have nothing to do with the building).On the financial side, most of the new building costs are recovered from efficiencies of people doing their jobs better.

Yes, we do embrace the 'super store' model. Inventory is one thing, people are the other. You don't find experienced people in this industry, you have to grow them. The super store model with company trainers, training facilities, etc is really key to making this all work. We've made a big deal out of the Mount Joy hub store, but we've been investing in all our stores to make them better places to work. Hiring is hard right now, we need to invest in our facilities so we're the best place to work.

Lastly thanks. I can't say that enough. I almost can't believe myself whats happening here. I'm proud of our people and what they are doing, and just blown away by all the people who choose us. The amount of support and encouraging words from everyone visiting the store, sending emails, coming to open houses was way beyond what we ever expected.

THIS is why I like the folks at Messick’s. Very good to get on here and directly address some of the speculation. As far as customer service goes. . . Though I am too far to shop with them, I had a question that I emailed to Neil Messick. He responded with a very detailed answer within 24 hours. Their videos really helped me in 2019 when deciding what machine and implements I needed for my place. I wish I lived closer so I could buy from them.

Good Folks.

 

[Torvy]

and Yes, we are selling the old home store. Its currently under contract.

pretty sad for many of us, my Grandfather built that location and my Dad and Uncle grew that location for nearly their entire careers. I worked there as a kid, helped with open houses, etc. Lots of memories. We had simply outgrown the site and had no more room to continue expanding.

I feel your pain. My family was in the business in the 70s-80s. Not nearly as long as yours, but I helped out in the shop and was sad to see it go.

If y'all ever look to get out of the cold, it would be nice to see your model down here in East Texas.

 

[Hay Dude]

So I missed the start of this. What do you all what to know?

Few questions to what I saw so far.

Yes.. we use a hub and spoke model. We have 5 stores, 1 Hub with 4 spokes (which is not a lot by todays standards)

Yes, the new building was nutty expensive. We where super fortunate to lock in all the pricing, financing, etc pre-pandemic. I can't imagine how different it would look today. What we did is affordable with our typical margins from the old location. We are not "raising prices to pay for it" (not to say we're not seeing prices going up, but the reasons have nothing to do with the building).On the financial side, most of the new building costs are recovered from efficiencies of people doing their jobs better.

Yes, we do embrace the 'super store' model. Inventory is one thing, people are the other. You don't find experienced people in this industry, you have to grow them. The super store model with company trainers, training facilities, etc is really key to making this all work. We've made a big deal out of the Mount Joy hub store, but we've been investing in all our stores to make them better places to work. Hiring is hard right now, we need to invest in our facilities so we're the best place to work.

Lastly thanks. I can't say that enough. I almost can't believe myself whats happening here. I'm proud of our people and what they are doing, and just blown away by all the people who choose us. The amount of support and encouraging words from everyone visiting the store, sending emails, coming to open houses was way beyond what we ever expected.

I can’t believe how low used equipment inventories are! I am looking for a used 130HP power shift or CVT with a strong loader for $60k or less.
Forget about it. Even used inventory at Messicks is low!
What are you seeing in your crystal ball for used equipment?

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

If y'all ever look to get out of the cold, it would be nice to see your model down here in East Texas.

Add Alabama in that as well.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Used priced are nuts. Used inventories are at the lowest level I've ever seen it. We are noticing auction values going over the price of new equipment. I'm a little scared to really put all our cards into that as we expect values to collapse once new inventory starts to normalize. We are starting to see that happen in some places, but we have a long way to go. We are definitely valuing used machines that we can sell quickly much higher than a year or two ago. We're not enjoying this at all. We need predictability.