Johnson Tractor expands, finishes year with strong sales

JANESVILLE, Wis. — Johnson Tractor is expanding into the Chicagoland area with the addition of a facility in Harvard, Illinois.

“The northwest corner of Illinois has interesting geography with residential pockets and yet there’s still quite a bit of agriculture there,” said Taylor Gerber, marketing manager for Johnson Tractor. “That’s why having the Kubota line that has everything from residential products all the way to some larger tractors and hay and forage equipment really hits all the different areas in that corridor.”

The acquisition of A.A. Anderson makes a total of five locations for Johnson Tractor with three stores in Illinois and two in Wisconsin.

“Kubota is a growing line with our existing stores, with three stores handling the Kubota line,” said Eric Reuterskiold, operations for Johnson Tractor that offers the Case IH and Kubota product lines of turf, construction and agricultural equipment.

“The rural lifestyle is a target customer,” Reuterskiold said. “That is someone who has a few acres and maybe some animals.”

Sales of farm equipment for Johnson Tractor have been fairly strong during the final quarter of 2020.

“With the higher crop prices at the end of the year, we’ve seen an uptick in purchases,” Reuterskiold said. “An uptick in new purchases means we’re trading more machinery and selling more used equipment.”

Up to now, Reuterskiold said, Johnson Tractor has adequate inventory to meet demand.

“There could be some inventory shortages as we go into next year,” Reuterskiold said.

“Most manufacturers due to COVID slowed down production earlier in the year not knowing what the outcome would be,” he said. “When they found out for a lot of lines there was going to be high demand, they couldn’t ramp back up fast enough plus there were supply chain issues related to COVID around the world.”

In addition to selling new and used equipment, Johnson Tractor also offers rental equipment for light construction that includes machinery such as skid steer loaders and mini excavators.

“We’ve seen a steady rental business,” Reuterskiold said.

Adding new locations is more than just a building for Johnson Tractor.

“Some of the best assets we gain with these acquisitions are the people,” said Sue Johnson, accounting/HR at Johnson Tractor. “We’ve had so many great people from Leffelman, Walker-Schork and now A.A. Anderson stay on with us and that’s a complete positive for us.

“We’re excited about the up-and-coming talent we have in Taylor and our new sales people along with the seasoned group of technicians and sales people,” Johnson said. “With these new rising stars, we’re looking forward to the future.”

“The next generation of Johnsons has joined the business over the last two years and now we have Patrick Johnson and Kathryn Hesebeck to carry on the Johnson tradition,” Reuterskiold said. “I’ve worked with three generations of the Johnsons starting with Ray, then Leo and Eric and now Patrick and Kathryn.”

Johnson Tractor is looking forward to another milestone in 2021, with the opening of a new building in Rochelle.

“We started to revamp our Rochelle building last year because the old building had been added onto multiple times and the combines and tractors aren’t getting any smaller,” Gerber said. “The new building puts us in a more visible location closer to the interstate.”

The goal is to complete the facility in May 2021.

“It will have more service and floor space and a new show room,” Gerber said. “We are putting our flag in Rochelle showing that we are there to stay.”

For more information about Johnson Tractor, go to www.johnsontractor.com.