With spring coming on, landscapers, farmers and homeowners in Geauga County who are thinking about their equipment needs won’t have far to travel this year.
With spring coming on, landscapers, farmers and homeowners in Geauga County who are thinking about their equipment needs won’t have far to travel this year.
A new John Deere dealership owned by Ag Pro LLC moved into the vacant Carter Lumber facility in Chardon on Valentine’s Day and the doors are open.
Ag Pro, with headquarters in Boston, Ga., bought and closed Cope Farm Equipment’s stores in Austinburg last year, said Devin Scott, sales representative at the Chardon Ag Pro facility at 467 Center St. around the corner from Home Depot. Ag Pro operations in Alliance and Kinsman remain open under Ag Pro ownership.
So far this winter, he and the 10-person team in Chardon have sold mainly Ariens snow blowers, but, with the advent of spring, Scott said he anticipates tractor and lawnmower sales will take off.
Equipment isn’t all the store has to offer.
Scott said he’s especially happy with the spacious building in the back that was converted into a maintenance garage for customers with equipment problems or in need of regular maintenance.
“It’s a giant shop — pretty sweet,” he said, adding Ag Pro offers an annual maintenance plan.
“We have a full-service department. They pretty much work on anything they can fit through the door,” Scott said.
In Austinburg, where Scott was working through the winter, Ag Pro’s main customers were the vineyards in Ashtabula County, he said, but agriculture means something different in Geauga County.
“There are farms here,” he said, not to mention the area has plenty of landscapers and some contractors. “Our old customers will come back.”
Ag Pro was originally the Boston Tractor Company when it was founded in 1958 by James Groover Sr. and Samuel “Dick” Groover, who formed the Groover Brothers Partnership after returning from the war in 1945, according to the company’s website www.agprocompanies.com. The website says Ag Pro is the largest John Deere dealer in North America and has more than 70 locations stretching from Ohio down to Florida with more than 500 employees. It is a privately-owned corporation.
