Quote:
Originally Posted by Construct'O
So who is the biggest dealer in the US 
I thought i saw that it was Holt Cat,does the biggest mean biggest area or most inventory??? |
When it comes to biggest territory in the USA that would belong to N.C. Machinery. The complete state of Alaska and part of Washington state. Also they are part of the Harnish Group Inc. which also owns Tractor and Equipment Co, the Cat dealer who has stores in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota.
The most new inventory
, that changes on a day to day basis. With the economy in the situation as it is, not to many dealers bringing in machines unless it is sold. When times were good, probably every dealers lot was full.
Cashman Equipment just opened a new main headquarters in Henderson, Nv. Nice place, but wrong time to be spending over 200 million. Lot's of equipment sitting in that yard.
Wheeler Machinery has a new place in Hurricane, UT. Much larger than the old spot in St. George, but bad time to open up.
Most of these things were already in the works before times went sour.
Holt would be one of the oldest dealers. They have had dealerships all over the country. Right now they are in Texas, and California.
Wagner Equipment is probably second for territory, after purchasing Rust tractor. They now have the state of Colorado, New Mexico, and far West Texas. Plus they have a partnership in Mongolia, and Siberia. Wagners rental fleet is huge. As far as inventory these guy would be "The Biggest" and if not they are not far from it. Right now they have over 1000 pieces of used equipment. New inventory, would have to drive by each store to find that one out.
When it comes to dollar figures of new machine sales, probably a dealer who has quite a bit of large mines in thier territory. I know in the west it would be Cashman, Empire, Wagner, Wheeler, Butler and some more to go one. In the east Whayne, Walker, Carter and so forth. It is the big ticket items such as Haul Trucks, and Large Wheel Loaders that are selling these days for Gold, Coal, and Copper. One sale of a 793 Haul truck is probably the same as a yard full of skid steer loaders. Also the trucks are usually bought in multiple numbers.
When it comes to the largest dealship in the world as far as territory, that would be given to Finning, who has Western Canada, the UK, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Uruguay. With all the action going on up in the oil sands, and the mining in the rest of the countries Finning has for a territory, they would be #1 for the world. They amount of 797 Haul Trucks they have sold is unreal.
Many dealerships have been bought out by others, Cat wants to reduce the amount of dealers. Do not know if it still is true, but roughly 8 years ago, Carter Machinery, a dealer in the east was owned by Cat. If it still is, not sure. Dennis Washington, who owned Washington Construction out of Missoula, Montana and who had purchased Morrison Knudson, wanted to buy a Cat Dealer. I believe he was trying to get Long Machinery which was his dealer he dealt with. Cat said no, due to his construction company, it would be a conflict of interest. So instead, he bought a Komatsu dealership, Modern Machinery. Long eventually got bought by Western States, who has a nice size territory.
Back in 03 Peterson Tractor bought out Pape' in Oregon to make them larger. They have bought out a few dealerships in thier day. In 04 they made Caterpillar history by selling 24 657E scrapers to one customer, plus the other support equipment to go with it. This was all on one ticket. It was a very good year.
The customer was Desilva Gates, and a bunch of the 657's have been sold some over machinery trader since the economy went in the toliet.
Every dealer has it's own unique story to it. Some are sad, some are just hilarious