Cervus to expand Saskatchewan reach

Deere farm equipment dealer chain Cervus Equipment is set to expand its reach in northeastern Saskatchewan next month.

Calgary-based Cervus — which operates 21 Deere dealerships in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia along with 42 other machinery dealerships in Canada, Australia and New Zealand — announced Thursday it plans to have a new dealership open at Nipawin, Sask. by about April 15.

“We are establishing this greenfield location to provide quicker, more convenient access to agriculture equipment, parts and service for our customers in this thriving agricultural region,” the company said in its year-end financial report.

The Nipawin operation is to include parts technicians, three service bays “equipped with manufacturer-trained service technicians” and a mobile technician for in-field and on-farm repairs.

“This new facility will complement the services currently being offered from our store in Melfort, enhancing the customer experience and improving service levels for farming operations in the agricultural areas of Nipawin, Carrot River, Choiceland and Arborfield,” Cervus CEO Angela Lekatsas said in a release. Nipawin is about 90 km northeast of Melfort.

The company on Thursday reported a net loss for the year ending Dec. 31 of $8.618 million on revenues of $1.14 billion, down from net income of $24.777 million on $1.35 billion in revenues in 2018.

Part of the dip in revenue came from a 24 per cent decline in agriculture equipment revenue for the year, the company said, as the Canadian ag industry “faced a number of headwinds.”

Among those, Cervus said, were reduced 2018 farm income, increased input costs, reduced commodity prices and trade disputes, “all compounded by poor growing and harvesting conditions in parts of our geography.”

Farmers thus “chose to postpone new equipment purchases as many own late-model equipment acquired in recent years,” the company said.

That said, Cervus noted its largest increase in product support revenue was in its agriculture segment, as “demand for parts and service continued through the challenging harvest window.”

A difficult harvest in 2018 “also bolstered early season product support revenue in 2019.”

Cervus on Thursday also announced an “exclusive partnership” with Telus’ cloud-based farm management business Farm At Hand.

“This innovative farm management application enables the digitization of farm records to better manage farm activities, sales timing, field profits and equipment utilization, as well as integrating with the data and analytics delivered by John Deere Operations Center,” Cervus said in its year-end release.

Farm at Hand, Cervus noted, also integrates with the data and analytics delivered by John Deere Operations Center.

Cervus, in its release, said it will “bring these solutions to our customers as the exclusive provider of the Farm at Hand platform in our geography.” Further details weren’t available from Cervus on Friday. — Glacier FarmMedia Network