Worthington Ag Parts - President's Blog

Discount Used Tractor Parts - South Africa

Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 44 years!  Parts - Expect More From Us!

I'd like to introduce a special customer of ours Discount Used Tractor Parts of South Africa!  Worthington Ag Parts has been selling parts to them for over a decade!  Discount is truly a family business, the three brothers Evan, Ilan and Steven Rubin, their father Colin and uncle Les all have a hand in running the business!  They are located in the city of Delmas!  I visited their operations in 2005 and took the photo shown above of Evan, Ilan, Colin and Steven!  It was truly a unique experience to see their operations, while the culture is different the parts are the same! 

On Monday of this week at our Export Division in Sioux Falls, SD we had a strategic planning meeting with our good friends and customers!    The photo to the left show the six of us from left to right is Colin Taylor - International Sales Manager, myself, Steven Rubin, Randy Mittlestadt - Director of Operations, Carl Vande Weerd - Farm Show Manager, and Evan Rubin.      

The highlight of the day was when Evan asked to use the phone to call home to South Africa.  Our phone system requires that the user dial 9 to access an outside line and to call internationally in the United States you must dial the "011" prefix!  Well Evan dialed the 9 missed the zero and followed it up with 11 -- well we all know what happens when you dial "911"!!!  Well the sheriff's department were calling back within seconds and they demanded they come out and make sure everything was okay!  They were at the front door within five minutes, insuring everything was okay!  As you can see from the photo the handcuffs were almost used on Evan!  I think it was the first time the officers had met someone from South Africa!

It was a productive meeting and we look forward to expanding our relationship! We value their customer loyalty but more importantly we appreciate their friendship!  Thanks for taking the time to visit the Export Division and safe travels on your journey to our Sikeston, Missouri location!

That's all for today!

Cheers,

Mike Winter

Still Here!

Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 44 years!  Parts - Expect More From Us!

I've been waiting along time to dedicate the time to write my blog and let everyone know I'm still here!  Today I was motivated not only by the fact that I had the time and it's way over due but also by the fact there is a little rumor going around the industry.  The rumor is that I quit as President of Worthington Ag Parts.  Wow, that's an amazing rumor, I guess when you are the industry leader the competition will try anything to get a piece of your business!

I'd like to set the record straight, I am still the President of Worthington Ag Parts, and Director of Neil's Parts, a job for which I'm grateful for!  I have a great team of employees in three countries, United States, Canada and Australia.  I work for an owner that invests and believes in the business and we have the best customers in the world!  Our customers are honest people working hard to make a living and if they tell you I'll pay you in two months when the crops come in, you can take that to the bank! 

The last few months has been crazy, budgets, auditors, foreign subsidiary system integration, year-end with two new controllers and exponential sales growth!  We have survived and I hope to blog more often than in the last four months!  I have a lot of news to share!  Rest assured I'm not going anywhere because I have no intentions of letting my team down, the owner or our valued customers!  All I can say as I approach my 18 year anniversary with Worthington Ag Parts is watch out competition - I'm not going anywhere!

Cheers,

Mike Winter

Neil's Parts - Corporate Office

Neil's Parts - Australia's Largest New, Used and Rebuilt Tractor, Header, Cotton Picker and Implement Parts Specialists!  Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts to customers for 43 Years!  Parts - Expect More From Us!

Neil's Parts corporate offices are located in Toowoomba, Queensland, just down the road from the branch.  The new offices were opened in July after being relocated from the Dubbo branch.  It's the first time the corporate office has been located out of the confines of a branch. 

This will be the hub for our existing and future branches.  It is their base to rely on for support and it will enable to open a few more branches in the coming years!  Too often the rationale is a corporate office is "overhead" to the organization or an "ivory tower".  In fact sometimes they are if nothing is moving forward or opportunities are wasted away.  With the integration of our U.S. Company Worthington Ag Parts and our Australia Company Neil's Parts platforms we will be one company for the world - one team.  Allowing us to provide exceptional customer service on both sides of the globe!

I'd like you to meet the corporate office team of Neil's Parts.

This is the newly appointed General Manager of Neil's Parts - Jason Atkins.  Jason has been with the company for 13 plus years.  It was nice to fill the recent vacancy from within the organization.  It demonstrates our philosophy to provide opportunities to passionate, knowledgeable and loyal employees wanting to move up within our team!  Jason started in the yard, moved to parts specialist, store manager and his recent position has been Director of Operations for the last three years!  Good Luck Jason we'll support you every step of the way! If you would like to congratulate Jason with an email click here!

Michael "Newbs" Newbury - Financial Controller.  Michael joined the team in April of this year.  He has been a real stable addition to the organization.  He has accepted the challenge of grasping the old accounting system along with the new accounting platform as of January 1st, 2008!  Newbs provides the resources to handle the future expansion planned for Neil's Parts and a solid financial background to maintain the integrity of our financial numbers for our auditors.

Robert Dean - Graphic Design.  Bobby joined the team in September 2003.  He designs all of the advertising for Neil's Parts, ads, catalogs, office stationary everything!  The last two years he has also been designing most of our ads for the United States as well.  Bobby doesn't just do the advertising you can find him helping in the accounting department, designing access databases, website development and any other administrative tasks that need to be done!

Leanne Sawley - Asst. Accountant.  Leanne joined the team in September of this year.  She recently has moved to Australia from Canada with her Australian husband!  She helps Newbs with the accounting, payroll, and all office tasks.  She is more than just an accountant, she is also the office manager who keeps these guys in line!  She will be working instrumental with all the bookkeepers on the new system, reviewing their daily work and posting their batches!  Welcome to the team Leanne, we are glad to have you on board.

Craig Hall - Inventory Procurement Manager.  Craig has been with Neil's Parts since July of 1994.  He has recently moved to Toowoomba - corporate office from the Corowa branch.  He is in charge of purchasing after-market new parts and re-manufactured parts.  He has a big job to do on the new platform as all counter requests for parts will go through him for purchasing.  He is also instrumental on working on international seasonal shipments of containers full of replacement parts.  Craig has spent the last three weeks away from his family who have not relocated from Corowa.  That's a long time to be away from your immediate family - THANKS for your efforts!

Here is a look at the team in the conference room.  Jamie Neldon (Accounting Systems Manager) and Michael Chorzempa (Financial Controller) both from the U.S. are providing training to Leanne, Newbs and Sharon on Microsoft Dynamics our accounting platform.  This is in preparation for it's roll out in January.  Tomorrow Greg Clemens our Manager of Information systems is going to provide training on their new counter selling systems, which not only provides them with the real time inventory but also the availability of parts from their U.S. sister company as well.

That's all for today and thanks for reading my blog!

Cheers,

Mike Winter

 

 

Australia - Toowoomba Store

Neil's Parts - Australia's Largest New, Used and Rebuilt Tractor, Header, Cotton Picker and Implement Parts Specialists!

Greetings from "the land down under" - rainy Australia!  That's correct rainy!  It has rained every day at some point during the day which is awesome for a country with severe drought conditions!  The trip down was uneventful which is just the way I like it.  The flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane was only 13 and 1/2 hours!  The total trip from the time we left our homes in Minnesota until we arrived in Toowoomba was almost 30 hours!    We've been here since Friday but things are "crazy" and I just haven't had a chance to collect my thoughts to blog! 

Neil's Parts of Toowoomba yard is shown in the picture to the left.  They are located in the state of Queensland about two hours from Brisbane!  The store is just down the road from our Australia corporate headquarters, where we are located for ten days!  It is the largest yard of the four, located on machinery road!  It's very well organized.  Tim Allan the manager made us breakfast at the yard on Monday morning.  It was great, I think he learned how to cook from his lovely wife who is a professional chef!

This is John Walk a parts specialist at the Toowoomba store.  John has been selling parts since March of this year and has been a great addition to the team.  He also plays rugby with some of the guys from the yard.  I've seen his legs rugby short and he should wear pants with those bird legs.  In all seriousness, he can get you the part you need if your tractor or combine ("header" as they call it in Australia) is broke down. 

Meet Craig Tebbutt - parts specialist Toowoomba.  Craig has been on the team at Toowoomba since September 2000.  This is Craig's second go round with the company.  You can count on Craig to be there everyday to provide you the parts that you need!  Craig has an easy going nature, nothing is too much trouble for him per his old manager Jason Atkins.  If you look real close at the photo you will see a "dash" of a figure rushing past Craig.  This is Nikolas Fitzgerald known "Nick Fitz".   He works so fast you can't even catch him on the digital camera.  I think his new nickname should be "Dash"!  Well maybe he doesn't work that fast but I thought the picture was really neat!

Sharon Greenbury is the new bookkeeper at the Toowoomba branch.  She was just hired to handle the bookkeeping duties that are changing because of our new system integration with the United States.  That's the primary reason for our trip.  Neil's Parts will be running on our platform January 1st - one world - one company - one team!

There are many more valued employees at the Toowoomba store that we didn't have time to get pictures of.  That's doesn't mean we think any less of them, we just ran out of time.  More tomorrow on the corporate office staff.  That's all for today from the land down under!

Cheers,

Mike Winter 

Thanksgiving!

Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 43 years!  Parts - Expect More From Us!

Everyone has something to be thankful for!  I'm sure most of you know what that is.  Today I'm going to tell you a few things I'm thankful for.  In the business world I'm thankful for the opportunity afforded to me by John "Hap" Fauth our owner to let me be the leader of Worthington Ag Parts.  Yesterday I was with the company for 18 years!  I'm also thankful for the team we have assembled at Worthington Ag Parts / Neil's Parts and the effort they put in everyday to make us the number one used agricultural parts supplier in the world!

From a personal stand point I'm thankful for the the three people that are most important in my life!  My wife and two daughters shown in this picture!  They are the main reason I do what I do!  Life would sure be empty without them.  I'm thankful for the good friends that I have in the business and personally.  You know who you are!  I can think of many more personal reasons that I am thankful for but I won't bore you!

Worthington Ag Parts is closed for the long weekend Thursday through Sunday!  I hope our employees and our valued customers have a safe and relaxing holiday weekend with their families!

Thanks for reading my blog and Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheers,

Mike Winter

President - Worthington Ag Parts

Inventory Trip Day 12 - Worthington, MN - Home

Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 43 Years!  PARTS - Expect More from us!

Good morning!  This is the day we've been looking for since we started - THE LAST DAY!  We were in the lobby of the Americ Inn bright an early this morning.  The standing units, inside inventory were completed by 5 PM last evening, leaving only the outside parts inventory appraisal this morning.  The inventory team are exhausted and they should be.  They have done a great job! The trip has gone 12 days, covered 8 states and ten locations! 

During this time the crew has appraised all of our used inventory.  You ask how many standing units?  Well here are the numbers:

Used Combines - 2,177

Used Tractors - 1,157

Used Grain Heads, Planters, Foragers and Balers - 367

Used Cotton Pickers - 121

These figures do not include our location in Canada or our four stores in Australia (Neil's Parts)!  Don't forget all of the bins full of used parts that were valued.  We have over 30,000 part numbers set up in our system that track used parts as well.  Each of these are shown in our on-line catalog with the prefix (WU-)!  There is no question we provide the broadest used inventory for salvage parts in the industry.

I'm writing this blog early today in anticipation of the drive home.  All of us should be on the road home by 11 AM today.  I had a chance to stop in and visit my mother here in Worthington yesterday, she is 80 years old.  My mother still lives in the same house I grew up in, yes that's right I'm originally from Worthington, MN.  The smell of homemade cinnamon rolls was floating about the house, freshly removed from the oven.  I didn't need one but of course who turns down their mother's cooking?  It was a nice treat towards the end of a long trip. I even stole one for Nick Moeller our Watertown, SD store manager who is part of the crew.  Nick has a "BIG" sweet tooth and always enjoys his sweets!

We have survived another inventory trip and before you know it we'll be back at this in 2008 for my 18th in a row!  Thanks for reading my blog!

Cheers,

Mike Winter

Inventory Trip Day 11 - Worthington, MN

Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 43 Years!  PARTS - Expect More from us!

Hello from windy Worthington, MN!  The wind is blowing so strong here the wind turbines are glowing red instead of their usual white!  Okay maybe I'm exaggerating but it's really strong here today!  The temperature is 37 degrees today and the wind is blow between 25 and 35 miles per hour.  We made it to Worthington around 4:30 PM yesterday.  The crew wasted no time and headed into the parts bins for an hour, then fatigue set in and we wrapped it up for the night.  They were very quiet this morning departing the hotel, a result of the long day ahead of them evaluating the large amount of standing combines, tractors and grain heads in the yard.  You can see from the above photo the large amount of used inventory in the yard.

You can see from the photo that our sales area is a little different in Worthington!  The parts specialists are in desks.  There are usually seven parts specialists serving the customers full time at this location.  They also have a nice display of parts in the lobby.  This store has a steady stream of walk in customers all day long.  This location has been in business for over 43 years the the name Worthington Ag Parts!  This store is all about the people similar to most of our other locations so here are a few of the team!

This is Laurie Hokeness our office manager she's been on the team 26 years!  She started in July of 1981!  Laurie use to work out of the corporate office when it was in Worthington.  She handled all of the payroll, personnel and inter company accounting.  She is now the office manager at the Worthington store. 

Meet Shelly Bird - bookkeeper Worthington store!  Shelly has been with Worthington Ag Parts since June of 2004!  She is a big Tony Stewart fan even though he didn't do so well this year!  She has a bunch of his stuff posted on her office wall.  Both of these girls carry a big stick like Libby does in Audubon.  If the guys don't do their paperwork right look out.  If you don't believe me just look at the sign they have posted in their office! 

Here is our counter staff, and their hire dates.  It doesn't matter if you need tractor parts, combine parts or implement parts they have the inventory and knowledge to provide a solution to you problem!

Dan Poss - Parts Specialist!  Dan can sell parts, buy inventory, mechanic in the shop and even haul salvage in the company truck!  Dan has been with Worthington Ag Parts since October 1988!

Arnie Ihrke - Parts Specialist!  Arnie has been on the team since April of 1981.  You can count on Arnie to be at the phones everyday!

Dale Martin - Parts Specialist!  Dale has been on the team since October 2000.  Dale is always good for a laugh, if you have time email Dale and ask him his story about the West Nile Virus!  If he can't remember that one I'm sure he has another joke for you! 

Rick Cobb - Parts Specialist!  Rick has been on the team since November of 2006 - he is the rookie!  Rick is excellent on greeting the customer on the phone and is catching on quick to the variety of parts we offer to the customer.  Rick also became a Grandpa recently congratulations!

Matt Helmers - Assistant Manager, Parts Specialist and Buyer!  Matt has been on the team since September 2004.  Matt not only sells parts but he also purchases quite a bit of our salvage for the Worthington location and a host of others.  If you can't find Matt at work you might find him hunting!  I think someone else shoots those big deer he has his picture taken with.

Dennis Bucholz - Manager - Worthington Division!  Dennis is the leader of the team here in Worthington.  He has been employed with the company since July of 1987.  Dennis became the manager of the facility in January of this year.  It's a big job to run our largest store and year one is the hardest but Dennis has risen to the challenge!

That's a few of our 26 employees here at the Worthington store!  I will have more tomorrow, that's it for today!

Thanks,

Mike Winter

Inventory Trip Day 10 - Audubon, IA

Worthington Ag Parts - Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 43 Years!  PARTS - Expect More from us!

We arrived in Audubon yesterday at 3:15 PM after a good inventory at Iowa Falls!  We didn't see much corn in the fields during the three hour drive.  Harvest is definitely in Iowa.  We spent part of the time on the truck phone planning advertising and shows for the new year along with operations stuff.  The question is what did we do before mobile phones?  How did all the work get done?  I'm sure it still got done but in this "NOW" world we live in, everyone wants action right now.

The weather was good so the crew walked the outside yard inventory late in the afternoon.  Sergeant Greg Clemens had them out the door and started in five minutes upon arrival.  They started inside for an hour and quit a little after 6PM.  Nick Moeller arrived about 5 PM and jumped right in.  We stayed in Carroll, Iowa last night which is about 30 miles north of Audubon.  After a quick bite to eat in the hotel bar everyone bolted for bed by nine leaving Randy Mittlestadt with the tab and no one to talk to!!  Nice guys we are!  Morning came early, you know it's a long night when you can hear the room next to you getting text messages at 2 AM.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in the same bed for two nights in a row tonight at the hotel in Worthington.  The guys were out the door at 8 AM starting on the standing combines.  You should see Terry Holmes our Sikeston, MO store manager he's bundled up with mittens while the rest of us have light jackets on!  He's not used to this cold weather, we are going to get some good natured ribbing mileage out of this one for time to come!!

The Audubon store looks good.  All the parts in the sales area are labeled with computer generated tags and displayed well for our customers.  It sounds like Libby and Derrick did most of the work on this project.  This is something we should do at all of our stores for product displayed in the show rooms!  Great job!  I know the guys in Goldsboro have one of the new cab cams on display operating behind the counter for walk in customers to see.  That's a creative job on their part as well.

I'd like to you to meet a few of our valued employees in Audubon!

This is Libby Mcdonald our office manager in Audubon.  Libby has been with the company for over 24 years.  She started her position in February 1983  and has ridden the changes and continued to a very good job.  I guarantee you if any paperwork is filled out wrong by the team at the store, Libby gives them a big whack with her stick!  She carry's a big one.  We were joking last night that we've almost worked together for two decades - stating it in that context makes the thought of 20 years frightening.  Time surely does fly!  Thanks Libby for all of your hard work and dedication.  Oh Yeah and thanks for the three apple pies, and wonderful lunch you prepared for the crew today!!!

  This is Wes Thygesen our store manager in Audubon!  Wes has been on the team for over 26 years!  He has been managing the Audubon store since February of 2006.  Prior to becoming manager Wes has consistently been one of the top salesman in Audubon and the company! You can see from this photo of Wes' office wall he has consistently won Sales Achievement and Service Awards every year since we implemented them in 2001!  I'm not sure about the wall paper but I like the fact he has them proudly displayed in his manager's office!  Email Wes with a click here!   

Meet Gene Nowatzke - Parts Specialist in Audubon.  Gene has done a variety of jobs for Worthington Ag Parts and has been a member of the team since April 1981 that's over 26 years too!  It doesn't matter whether the customer needs a tractor part, combine part, planter part or any other implement part Gene can find what you need.  Combine with Wes that gives us 52 years of parts experience on the counter at our Audubon store!  Keep up the good work Gene and congratulations on recently becoming a Grandpa!!  Send Gene a congratulatory email on becoming a grandpa with a click here!

Enough about the veteran countermen, meet the "up an comer" Derrick Rohe - Parts Specialist Audubon store.  Derrick's  been on the team since May of 2005.  If you can't find Derrick on the counter you might find him in shipping, getting the parts out the door in a timely fashion to our customers.  Derrick said he needs to keep moving, he barely made time for me to take a picture of him this morning!  A couple years learning everything from Gene and Wes and Derrick will have some hardware to show off!  Thanks Derrick, keep up the good work!

These are just a few of the faces on the team in Audubon.  We should wrap up here a little after lunch and load up the vehicles for the four hour drive to Worthington, MN.  This is the last stop on our annual pilgrimage and the largest.  That store has over $1 million of used inventory and it's a two day appraisal process.  The store was started in July of 1964 and continues to lead the industry in providing used parts to the farmer!  I'm sure I'm going to get a little nap in that four hour drive as long as the cell phone don't ring and there are no deer laying on the road - AGAIN!

Cheers,

Mike Winter   

Inventory Trip Day 9 - Iowa Falls, IA

Worthington Ag Parts -Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 43 Years!  PARTS - Expect More from us!

Good morning from Iowa Falls, Iowa!.  An aerial photo of our salvage yard north of town on Highway 65 is shown at the top!  It's Monday - day 9 and the crew was out the door of the hotel by 7 AM.  As usual a stop at Casey's for coffee and breakfast but what was unusual about this stop was the two female deer wandering around town.  I guess they know the safe spots during hunting season!  We've seen some big deer on our inventory trips through the state of Iowa in the past.  I have not hunted deer for 17 years because of this trip every year but it only takes the sight of one big buck to get the old adrenaline flowing again.

Alright back to business - this is the counter area at the Iowa Falls store.  While the store is our smallest store in counter sales area, Gary and Mike shown in the photo can still provide all the parts necessary to fix your combine or tractor.  They were here at 7:15 AM ready for us to get started and answering sales calls.  We had a nice discussion about building a new sales area with offices and more room to display all parts.  They had some good ideas that may become reality in the near future.  The harvest is pretty much finished in this area but once again sales were good at this location during the season.

Here are some of the employees at the Iowa Falls location.

Mike Sykes shown here is our manager of the store!  Mike has been with us since May of 1985!  He has been the manager of the facility since January of 2002!  You can say hello to Mike and ask him how is inventory was with a click here!   

This is Gary Bierman one of our parts specialists.  Gary has been on the team since March of 2005.  He has been giving me a bad time because I haven't posted his picture on our web site yet, but here you go now you are front and center on the blog Gary!  He was busy quoting parts this morning for a 9650 STS combine just received at the store.  You can view photos of the combine by clicking here!  Thanks for your efforts in servicing our loyal customers daily.  If you would like to email Gary click here!

Meet Maria Heetland our part time Office Manager.  Maria is on her second tour of duty with the Worthington Ag Parts team.  She returned to work on March 2003.  Maria's attention to detail helped the company uncover some fraud a few years back.  The two individuals were prosecuted and restitution was made to the company because her effort and honesty.  Maria's husband Chad also worked for the company - she started dating him while working with us.  I guess there is some company romance occurring from time to time.  If you want to email Maria about Chad or anything else click here!

This is Kevin Houdeshell.  Kevin can do it all at the facility from managing the back yard to selling parts.  He is an important member on the Iowa Falls team and has been working for the company since July of 1994.  Thanks Kevin for all your hard work and dedication.

This is Harold Behrends, he pulls parts and tears down tractors.  He is always good for a smile and visit.  He was also wearing his safety glasses too - good job Harold.  Don't let his age fool you, Harold can get the job done and has been since October 2001.

That's just a few of the faces here at the store.  The team should wrap up by noon today and depart for Audubon, IA where they will start appraising immediately.  Nick Moeller will join us tonight in time to value the vast inventory in the parts bins.  I'm looking forward to spotting a big buck on the drive to Audubon today - it happens every year!  Now if I could just find the time to hunt again.  More from Audubon, IA tomorrow.

Cheers,

Mike Winter

Inventory Trip Day 8

Worthington Ag Parts -Tractor Parts, Combine Parts, Implement Parts providers to customers all over the world for 43 Years!  PARTS - Expect More from us!

It was a 4:30 departure time Sunday night from the office - destination Iowa Falls, Iowa.  Randy Mittlestadt, Greg Clemens and Mike Chorzempa were ready to go and I was running late.  It was a crazy 24 hours at home for my family.  Two basketball games for my youngest daughter, fractured finger for my oldest daughter - three hours in urgent care and a late birthday party on Saturday night.  The good news is at the last minute Karen had delivered on all my clothes they were laying neat and clean on the bed and I stuffed them back in the bag and ran out the door.  We were still loaded in the truck and headed down 35W by 4:45 PM! 

It was an uneventful drive to Iowa Falls, no freezing rain or snow this year.  Well there was one little hiccup, right in the middle of the interstate was a buck deer.  Someone must have hit him with a vehicle and stunned him.   He was sitting with his head up looking the other direction.  He came up fast since it was dark but a little swerve and all was fine.  I'm glad I wasn't talking on the phone!  Terry Holmes was in town and joined us for dinner.  A quick bite to eat at camp David around 8:30 PM and we were checked in the hotel by 9:30 PM.  Larry Frodermann had arrived already by the time we returned from dinner and was checked in for the night.

We were all present and accounted for - ready to start another inventory at our Iowa Falls, Iowa store in the morning.

Cheers,

Mike Winter