News
Linden Agri-Centre Has Purchased Bill's Farm Supplies
October, 2018
Effective Monday October 22nd, Linden Agri-Centre has purchased Bill's Farm Supplies in Stettler Alberta. They will be known as Stettler Agri-Centre.
Linden Agri-Centre Ltd. Awarded New Holland's Highest Dealer Award
April, 2017
Linden Agri-Centre Celebrates 40 Years
August 21, 2013
Linden Agri-Centre History
First of all I want to thank everyone of you for coming out and sharing this day with us. We're here only because of you, our customers and partners. I like to look at you as partners because we're here to help you be successful in probably the most important industry in the world. The food industry. There is no survival without food and that means without you. It's a privilege working with you.
Now I would like to give you a little history of our 40 years. Back in the 60's & 70's Carl Isaac owned Linden Machine Works manufacturing post drivers, trailers truck hoists and various other things. Along with manufacturing he sold Versatile, Massy, & various other brands of farm machinery.
In the early 70s, Carl decided to separate the manufacturing & the retail sales. He invited Bob Thiessen, Roy Thiessen & my dad, Fred Toews to take over the retail sales business with him. So in February 1973 Linden Agri-Centre Ltd. was incorporated. They worked out of the Machine Works building for 2 years & in 1975 a new office & service complex was built on 7 acres across the street. We've been there for 38 years.
In 1978 Trevor Krause joined us as a partner & Carl retired & moved to BC. Bob Thiessen sold his shares in the early 80s & moved on to different ventures. Trevor left us soon after leaving Fred & Roy as owners. In 1992, Roy retired & I became a partner with my dad.
We started as a NH, Versatile & Morris dealership. Later, when Flexicoil bought Linden Machine Works we added them to our tillage line & with the Summach drive to improve the air seeder world, Flexicoil soon became our number 1 tillage line & Flexicoil has treated us well ever since. In the middle 80s, Ford motor company stepped into the agriculture industry & purchased NH. A few years later they bought Versatile & now we had a complete line of farm machinery. Small tractors, medium tractors & large tractors along with combines & haying. It was a good fit for us.
In 1999 Ford NH purchased Flexicoil & now we were complete. Everything was under 1 banner.
A few years later Ford sold to Fiat & Ford exited the agriculture industry & we became NH Agriculture. As we are to this date.
We've added on to our original building 3 times. Twice for parts storage & 5 years ago we added 5000 feet to our service department. With a growing trading area & machinery going from 150-200 hp to 500-600 hp & combines doubling in capacity the extra room was welcomed.
We now have 22 employees working together as a team to provide you our customers parts & service as best we can. The only way we can keep going is if you are successful & farming looks pretty positive for a long time. People need to eat.
5 years ago Dad sold some of his shares to Andy Nelson & Kevin Helmer & they joined our sales team as partners.
James Klassen our service manager is celebrating his 35th anniversary this year.
Shirley Senger has been with us 34 years, I'm going into my 30th year.
Cody Ferguson & Lorne Reimer are in their 20th year.
Ian Anhorn has 12 years, Russel VandeLaak has 10 years, Darin Loewen 8 years, Jackie Dixon & Darrel Wiebe are 7 years, Clinton Toews, Leanne Moran & Rueben Scheele are 5 years, Andrew Koehn & Levi Harnack are 4 years, Richard Klassen & Butch Osborne have 2 years & Cornie Friesen, Mike Toews, Kurt Stahl , Murray Schmaltz, Wendy Marsh & Luke Scheele are all in their 1st year.
Each person is an important part of our team & it's a pleasure working with each of them.
I would also like to thank Joanne Dowell, our NH sales rep & Kyle Jensen the western Canada manager for joining us today. Also Marten Henriksen, our large equipment specialist, who also has 38 years with NH. He is retiring at the end of this month. He's been a wealth of information & help for a long time & I want to say a special at thank you to him & wish him good luck & a happy retirement. Thank you Marten.
Again I want to say thank everyone of you for coming out & sharing this day with us. It's always a pleasure to serve you & work with you. Thank you & I'm looking forward to many more years of business with you.
Thank you
- Ken Toews