SPENCER, Iowa | Little more than a year after acquiring the three John Deere dealerships in Spencer, Lake Park and Sibley, Noteboom Implement is spending $4 million to move and expand in Spencer.
The Lake Park facility is fairly new, partner Dan Noteboom said. But he and his brother, Mike, added $1 million to the expansion plans and move that was already in progress when they bought the Sibley shop. That move added a second story to the facility that was opened in August.
Noteboom said the investments represent a huge commitment to agriculture in Spencer and the surrounding area.
"It’s not a short-term investment,” he said “We’re getting into this for the long-term, because we have to feed the world. We have to help producers with the technology of our machines, to reduce the per-acre cost of producing food.”
The new Spencer shop is expected to be completed in December 2015.
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FAMILY BUSINESS
The Notebooms were partners in three South Dakota locations where their father got his start about 50 years ago, when he was involved with the cooperative in Corsica, S.D. The family later purchased Deere locations in Parkston and Chamberlain, S.D.
Peter J. Noteboom, Jr. is now 90 years old and wintering in Arizona, where he said in a telephone interview in February that he grew up on a farm that was “by far smaller than what we have today. Farms today are really going to town. The equipment used on the bigger farms nowadays is so big it’s almost scary.”
The second generation of Notebooms took over their father’s operation at a time when the farm machinery implement industry was seeing considerable consolidation. “We had to keep growing or get out,” Dan recently explained. “We wanted to keep growing as a family operation.”
Noting that the Spencer store, which sits on rented land, is “maxed-out,” Noteboom said he worked with Spencer officials to acquire about 25 acres of land south and west of the Menards outlet on Highway 71, and will nearly double the size of the present 25,000 sq. ft. store with a new 40-45,000 sq. ft. facility. The move will allow the company to increase the dealership’s product lines.
“There’s a lot of great stuff going on here. And we’re going to contribute heavily. We truly believe in value-added agriculture -- adding value to the crops where they are grown,” Noteboom said. “We enjoy what we do. It’s exciting to be a part of Spencer, a community that wants to grow. When you get people who work to be prosperous it rubs off on everybody.”
Noteboom explained that one of the efficiencies of a multi-location implement business is the expanded selection of both new and used equipment available to customers, while actually maintaining a lower level of inventory at each location.
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SIDEBAR
When Dan Noteboom married Jeanne Hoekstra his new father-in-law was the area’s IH dealer.
And it was his wife’s brother-in-law, the Rev. Dan Meter, who pronounced them man and wife, proclaiming from the pulpit that this was the first time he had ever presided over a “merger.” While Noteboom Implement is now in its third generation with Dan’s son Justin now involved in the company his grandfather started, Jeanne Noteboom’s father sold his interest in the IH business many years ago.
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