In this episode of Gear Up with BigIron, we’re thrilled to welcome Don Van Houweling from Van Wall Equipment, along with Ron and Mark Stock, to discuss their upcoming auction event, "The Biggest and The Best," on BigIron.com with the equipment featured on site at The Farm Progress Show in Boone, IA, August 27-29, 2024. The auction dates, August 28th and 29th, feature a stellar lineup of John Deere equipment that promises to catch the eye of many prospective customers. Tune in as Don, Ron, and Mark share insights into the high-quality gear up for grabs, their personal experiences building their businesses, and what makes this auction a standout event in the industry. Don’t miss out on this exclusive preview and expert discussion!
Listen Now: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-3-meet-don-from-van-wall-equipment--61053250
Also available wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be2KQ1v18K0&list=PL0atl--s1dlUEuEhqDDQY3rHtcHKwOfCR&index=2
To watch the full video click here:
Transcript:
Mark Stock: Well, hello everybody. Mark Stock here with Ron Stock, and we're gearing up with BigIron. And today we're going to have some exciting discussion with Don Van Houweling, one of the principals at Van Wall Equipment. And Don you make your residence where?
Don Van Houweling: I actually live, right in central Iowa, a small suburb outside of Des Moines. I spent the last 30 some years in a small town called Perry, Iowa, so I kind of say that that's kind of home base.
Mark Stock: So I'm taking you're probably an Iowa State fan.
Don Van Houweling: You got that right?
Mark Stock: And Iowa, Iowa State, the football season is about ready to kick off underway. Are you an avid football enthusiast?
Don Van Houweling: Above average? We are supporters. And of course, being an Iowa State graduate and being in my family now, we've got four generations that have graduated from Iowa State since the 1920s and so I'd have to say, Yeah, we're, we're, we're pretty familiar with Iowa State Athletics, big supporters, and it does look like maybe we'll have a team that can compete pretty well in the big 12 this year.
Mark Stock: Yeah, that'll be exciting. So you graduated from Iowa State in what year?
Don Van Houweling: Oh, you know, I forgotten. I Anyhow, after I did graduate, I was I had the opportunity to go to work for John Deere, and I kind of went through their management development program, worked for him for 10 years before I went and talked to my boss after doing some traveling, and I said, you know, maybe I'd be a better John Deere dealer guy than I would a factory marketing guy. And he said, you know, you ought to give it a run. And so they introduced me to the John Deere territory manager at the time, and he introduced me to a gentleman by the name of Barney wall who was a fighter pilot in World War Two. His dad had a dealership during the war, and Barney had was running that dealership, and had a couple daughters, and they weren't interested, probably, and taken over. And so Barney was looking for a junior partner that could, you know, come in after him. And I was introduced to Barney, and Barney was kind enough and supported enough to let me come in as a junior partner. That happened in 1978.
Mark Stock: and he had how many stores at that time, one, one.
Don Van Houweling: then little Main Street store where everybody on Friday night came in and said, Hi,
Mark Stock: hey, those are the those are the good old days, weren't they? And then when did you expand?
Don Van Houweling: Well, what happened was the gentleman that had the dealership just 14 miles west of us had a heart attack, and he and Barney were the best of friends. And he called up Barney and said, hey, you know, if I should probably bow out and you know, I'd love for you to have this dealership, and with Don there, maybe you guys can swing it. And back then, it wasn't in John Deere DNA to have multiple stores, but they did approve it. And so I had an opportunity then to have a store in Woodward and another one about 14 miles west or so in Perry. And that's kind of how, how it kind of got started.
Mark Stock: And now, now, you know, mother dear, they changed that whole vantage point in that view when, how did that all aspire?
Don Van Houweling: Well, I'll tell you, I was right in the middle of all that discussion, and kind of got moved around a little bit as that happened. But they did decide then to allow me to have a third store that was about 14 miles east, and that was little town called Madrid. And I think they found out that, you know, you could run three stores if you kind of knew what you were doing. And they, I think they saw some benefit in that. And then over that next 10 years, we saw some stores, some, you know, stores joining together two and three and so, but it was still kind of off the charts to go above that. And I did have that opportunity in 2000 then, and believe it or not, they approved it. And that was kind of after that. It was kind of well, you keep performing, and we'll keep approving opportunities. And I think they did that, and started doing that. Then in after 2004 2005 and then over the last, what, 15 years or so, that's kind of been the change. But I think they realized that scale was going to be. Important as farmers kept getting larger, and so they wanted to, they said, you probably make sense that those two be balanced,
Mark Stock: correct? So now you have 35 locations, 31
Don Van Houweling: right? Well, yeah, we have over 30, that's correct. Over 30 we just added, we added a location in Saint Paul and Fargo here this last 90 days. So yeah, we do have over 30 stores.
Mark Stock: Well, a lot of people probably understand, and maybe some don't understand is you're into power sports, you're into lift trucks. So how did that all come about? Well,
Don Van Houweling: one of the things that I thought was probably important was that we be somewhat diversified. You are now seeing the same thing that we've seen for the last, you know, forever, in ag, that it kind of, you know, it has its season, and then it doesn't have its season. And so the economics of farming really move around a lot. And so I said to myself, John Deere, you're pretty good at lawn and garden equipment. Why don't I focus on that a little bit too? And so I opened a couple of purely lawn and garden type stores, and also had what we call power sports. Would have been boats and Polaris and different things like that. And I slowly built that business up, and then realized that there was also some opportunities in pure power sports. So we recently opened a 55,000 square foot facility on Interstate 80 that we call Stroom that has all of the major brands, you know, from, you know, Indian, Polaris, Honda, Ducati, ktm, and I can go on and on, but it's kind of we said we're going to be the Bass Pro Shop of power sports and that's kind of what we're what that's kind of our focus. Now deer also, a lot of people may not understand, but deer is very much involved in the golf and sports turf business. When you see these golf events, there's specialized mowers that mow that grass and do those bunkers and take care of all that, and John Deere builds that specialized equipment. And Toro was always a leader there. Jacobson was a leader. But John Deere, over the last 10 years now, has become a leader as well. And so I have nine states where I'm responsible for that product, for all the golf courses and sports or facilities, baseball parks, all that, and that's a big part of our business now. So that's another John Deere piece that we have. We also have light construction, which means everything from about 120 horsepower on down when it comes to excavators and skid loaders and that type of thing. And then one of the businesses that was recommended to me in my 20s group was the fork truck business, because very intensive relative to servicing parks and servicing and that's really, that's really the secret sauce to this business anyway. So we decided to be responsible for the states of Nebraska and Iowa for Dusan at the time, which is, you know, now been purchased by the folks that build skid loaders, competitive skid loaders. So that seems to be, that seems to be our DNA now to be, have multiple brands, have multiple industries, and try to balance the the ebbs and flows of the farm economy.
Mark Stock: So you have been in business for a number of years, and I always like to ask those folks that have been very successful, you know, to give us two, two secrets to your sauce. What do you think have you attributed the majority of your success to?
Don Van Houweling: I've invested all of my number one, any extra money I had that I was able to hang on to at the end of any year, I reinvested in my service platform, adding service facilities, adding storage facilities, adding technicians, adding tools, adding training. I said, you know, whether a customer buys a machine or not, in 24 he that machine's got to run for him. It's got to be reliable, and he's got to he's got to be confident in it. So I'm going to be the guy that's going to do that no matter what the economy. And so that's really, there's really two things, reinvesting the money back in the business, and then reinvesting it in after market support services.
Mark Stock: So that was one of your secrets. And I suppose you have a handful of really good, talented people,
Don Van Houweling: as you know now, you know it is all about people, both internally and externally. And what you know, I told you earlier that when we were talking before. The podcast, how blessed that I have been to have such a tremendous group of people around me, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll say I got this John Deere group around me. That's my external group. I've got these other OEMs with their specialists. And, you know, I learned from all of them, even though we're in different industries. They're all important. The Spader group that I'm that I'm part of, is a important part of my learning and understanding process. And then I'm very fortunate that all three of my sons, who also graduated from Iowa State University, one in business and then went to Michigan get his MBA. He's also a CPA. He's my Chief Operating Officer. Wow. He's very capable. And I've got my middle son, that's Mike. Then my middle son, Matt, he's my IT and marketing guy, and he went to Iowa State in it. And then my younger son Mark, who helps with the farming operate, family farming operation, as well as our transportation division. Got his degree in transportation and logistics at Iowa State. So all three of my sons are part of the business and are able to do their function very well. I also would be remiss if I didn't tell you that during the ups and downs of all this, as I was trying to stay in business, and my wife, Terry, who's now retired, worked for the company for 30 years, and if it wasn't for Terry, I can promise you I wouldn't be here
Ron Stock: today. Ron, here we want to thank you for doing business with Sullivan's and with big iron. And I know you've got a relationship with Dan and Luke Sullivan for a lot of years. But what can you tell me about that relationship? Obviously, it's been successful in
Don Van Houweling: this, in any business, it's always about integrity and trust. And I trust Dan and Luke. I trust the way they do business. When, when you do business with them, whether you're internal or external, you know that things are going to be straight up. They're going to be fair and they're going to do it the right way. And to me, once I go external like this, you know, that's who I've lived my whole life, trying to be, and tried to share that with my team, and I found the same thing with Dan and Luke.
Mark Stock: Yeah, awesome. That's awesome people. Let's talk about this big event that's going on here at Farm Progress. And you've had auctions in conjunction with farm progress in the past and and this one here, you got a special tagline for this big event. Yeah, you know the biggest, the biggest and the best we
Don Van Houweling: We've had a couple of small auctions. We had a little bit of room there at the Farm Progress Show. We have a site that's right next to the show, a facility right there that is our, one of our training centers, and we use that, and maybe had 10 or 12 different items that we would bring to try to spice it up a little bit. And but then I got to thinking about, I said, you know, you got 10s of 1000s of people that come to that show, and they don't get to see premium, high-quality equipment in an auction setting, live anywhere like what we could provide. One of the, one of the things that we need to make sure everybody understands is Iowa is John Deere country, and Iowa is premium farming country, and my customers take exemplary care of their equipment. Yes, even when I have it on my lot, I keep it under roof. It's always under roof where they are. And Iowa farmers really take care of their stuff. So we have premium used equipment. Well, I said to farm progress folks, I said, Would you give me a space big enough to really do something significant this year? And they did. And so we've got a large space where, for the first time, we can have a very significant amount of equipment available to these many Farm Progress customers that are going to be at the show, and they're now going to get to see it. So so it's going to be a combination, it's going to be there, plus it's going to be virtual. So we're going to give people an opportunity to purchase some of the best farm equipment at a true in a true auction setting that's both virtual and live and curious. So it's going to be special. Yeah, awesome. It
Mark Stock: is going to be special, and we're excited about that particular event. And, you know, and I'm sure you know, the the machinery market right now, give your perspective on what's going on in the in the ag equipment market from the dealer perspective.
Don Van Houweling: Well, in 22 and 23 we're. Remarkable years in terms of new equipment sales. And you know, the sales growth that graph was just up, up, up. Well, that was a function of supply and demand, as well as commodity prices. And as commodity prices have gone down and as supply has gone up, it it's not a problem to purchase new equipment from myself through John Deere. At the same time, we took in a lot of pre-owned equipment during that time. It's interesting. I've got some foreign heads and platforms that I actually sold 18 months ago. That really, for the first time, we've got them available to sell to the customer really. And prices are always a function of supply and demand. So the value of used equipment has gone down relative to the value of new equipment. So right now, it is a perfect time to be taking the opportunity to buy premium pre-owned equipment, because I will tell you, in a year from now, it'll be a different story, because new equipment sales will go down, and pre-owned equipment will now be just at a very balanced point. So there's a great time to be in the market and take advantage of premium, pre-owned equipment, because the pricing is lower today than it was last fall for customers.
Mark Stock: Now has the has the John Deere mother company? Have they slowed down production so that will also come into play.
Don Van Houweling: Yeah, I would expect that we'll see a 20% reduction in new unit shift to dealers in the 24 maybe the 12 months from March of 24 to march of 25 and so that will mean that there's that also that's going to limit the number of youth units that are coming to the market as well. So this thing moves really quick both ways.
Mark Stock: So what I'm hearing you say is, if somebody's looking to do some upgrading of equipment, and they haven't done it in the last, you know, year to 36 months, now is the time to do it. That's what I'm hearing you say, You're
Don Van Hoeweling: 100% right. And what's interesting is they can do it at this auction with confidence. So the other thing that your your folks are doing that's a little bit different than normal, is if a customer also has a piece of equipment that he hasn't updated that's on the farm, you folks from big iron are going to, are willing to go out see him and help him get that sold, so that he doesn't have duplicate equipment on his place. So that's a that's kind of a big deal.
Ron Stock: Yeah, I always tell farmers selling at auction. If you're going to your auction and buying at auction, you can now sell at auction. It's a level playing field. So you're you hit that right on the money. You know, the farmers out there, we go right to the farm gate, take the pictures right there. And nothing shows better, as you know, Don than against the machinery shed with the John Deere emblem on the door. Farmer proud and right by his shed. We close the doors take pictures right by that shed.
Mark Stock: And we've always noticed, too, that we say it all the time. You know, farmers don't collect combines. Okay, they might, they might collect a tractor. They might collect a, you know, a pickup truck or something. But very seldom do they collect planters and sprayers and combines so with with the list of equipment and people. Can just go to, you know, Sullivan auctioneers.com, and big iron.com and see this very impressive list that is going to be sold coming up here. During Farm Progress, there'll be great opportunities to buy the planters and the sprayers and the combines and the tractors. Yeah,
Don Van Houweling: there's going to be a complete inventory of items. It'd be something for everybody,
Ron Stock: nice.
Mark Stock: tell you what the biggest and the best is taking place during Farm Progress. Van wall equipment is going to be hosting this public inspection in conjunction with this auction, and it'll be a two-day sale, and we are excited, and we want to thank Don and Van wall equipment for this unbelievable opportunity. You don't have to be at Farm progress to participate, but if you are going to farm progress, you will be able to see this machinery, and you can bid on it like you have always done on a Sullivan auctioneer auction. Just go to the website and get registered and click away and just remember, one more time, and you just might own it. That's what we always tell one
Ron Stock: more bid, one more time, you just might own it. And if you've never been to farm progress, you owe it to yourself to get there. And this would be an excellent icing on the cake to go see what Van wall is selling at auction the right way. Uh at Sullivan auctioneers. Two
Don Van Houweling: other things that I'd like to mention is that John Deere is also making available special finance, low-rate financing for this sale. In addition, we will have our people boots on the ground at the auction site, so you can talk to them about any piece of equipment. We're also sharing the phone numbers of the character the van wall territory manager that traded it in. So you can talk to them about the machine. They know the customer, they know the machine, and they will help you understand which machine you might want to bid on.
Mark Stock: Transparency is key in every form of business, customer service is what Van wall has been known for, and that's why I think, Don, people are going to really appreciate bidding and buying from your list of equipment on that particular sale. Don,
Ron Stock: there's not been one thing you've said here that didn't hit the mark exactly. Full disclosure, everything you've said is right on the money, you actually sound like a auctioneer promoting that sale.
Don Van Hoeweling: I really believe in my people and I believe in my customers. We've got the best farmers in the world right here in central Iowa.
Ron Stock: Nice
Mark Stock: great people, great opportunities. We want to thank Don once again for participating today's podcast, and we're getting geared up for this outstanding, the biggest and the best event that's coming up here during farm progress at the end of August. Check it all out on Sullivan auctioneers and bigiron.com and we want to thank you very much once again, and we'll see you next time.
Ron Stock: Thanks Don Thank you.
Don Van Houweling: Thank you guys.