Deere shop in SE Man. joins larger dealer chain

A well-known John Deere ag equipment dealership in southeastern Manitoba will become the eighth link of a Deere dealer chain covering the province’s south.

Enns Bros., a Deere dealer headquartered southwest of Winnipeg, on Tuesday announced an agreement to merge Deer Country Equipment of Steinbach into its own operations, effective June 28 (Monday).

Deer Country, formerly known as Reimer Farm Supplies, currently runs a 32,000-square foot facility built in 1996 on the north side of Steinbach. The company has operated in the southeast since 1953.

“With the addition of Steinbach, Enns Bros. becomes one of the highest-volume, independently owned John Deere dealers in Canada with close to 300 employees,” Enns Bros. said Tuesday in a release.

Enns Bros. said it expects the Deer Country merger will benefit customers by offering them “enhanced access” to parts, service and inventories as well as product support.

It also offers added tech support for Deere Ag Management Solutions (AMS) users and an expanded RTK network for Deere guidance systems, the company said.

The merger will also provide for daily parts transfers from all locations and gives customers added access to product specialists and equipment clinics, the company said.

Deer Country partners Alex Loewen, Ken Mantie and Mark Loewen will become partners in the Enns Bros. group, the company said. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t released.

The merged group will operate under the Enns Bros. name, which it said holds “solid brand recognition and market positioning.”

Enns Bros. owns dealerships at Morris, Portage la Prairie, Arborg, Brandon and Neepawa, a dealership at its head office at Oak Bluff and a power sports equipment shop in the St. Boniface industrial area in Winnipeg.

Enns Bros., which began in 1953 as a New Holland and Allis-Chalmers dealership at Sanford, Man., became a Deere dealer in 1956 and moved to nearby Oak Bluff in 1961, adding three new branches between 1987 and 2004.

The Brandon and Neepawa dealerships in western Manitoba came to Enns Bros. through its merger with Countryside Equipment in 2008.