James River Equipment announced its acquisition of RW Moore Equipment Company. With the addition of RW Moore, the company has expanded into eastern North Carolina following its 2001 entrance into the western half of the state. Terry Thomas, general manager of James River Equipment’s North Carolina operations, stated that the company is enthusiastic about this new direction.
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to fill out the state of North Carolina. We expanded into Asheville in 2010, and that has been a huge asset to our company. We think this new addition to our footprint will be a good fit for our current customers, and will also offer many benefits to the new customers over in that area. The existing employees in the eastern region will also be able to help us to take even better care of the folks from eastern North Carolina because they will have more resources at their disposal. We think it’s a great opportunity for the combined company to serve all customers better.”
The announcement marks not only an expansion of territory into Raleigh and the rest of eastern North Carolina, but also the opportunity to work with a new set of John Deere parts, service and sales representatives.
“We have experienced a lot of expansion over the years; however, we try to stay true to the roots of this organization that started from a small single store back in 1928. We have added dealerships over the years that made sense for our company, whether it came down to geography or a good fit with personnel or organizational ideals. However, our aim has never been to get bigger for the sake of being bigger. It has to make sense from a standpoint of ’does this dealership fit in with what we do and how we do it, will the customer base in this area benefit from our support,’ and ’are the people who are already there a good fit for our company?’ We felt that RW Moore was a great match in all of these areas. This has been a very long standing, successful John Deere dealership. In the past few years since the economic downturn, they have not been able to expand and grow as they would have liked, so our goal is to bring some development to the operations in eastern North Carolina that they haven’t been able to.”
According to Thomas, RW Moore and James River Equipment have been working together on different items for some time. The two have worked trade shows together and run joint advertising when it appealed to both parties. They also have been involved in joint training sessions over the years.
“We’ve hired a couple of the employees that wanted to move into our area from eastern North Carolina, so we actually have folks that used to work in the old RW organization. We are very familiar with one another. As our president Mark Romer said in meetings with RW Moore leading up to this purchase — “strength in numbers — we are going to make them stronger and they are going to make us stronger.”
This strength also means increased product offerings and service availability for former RW Moore customers.
“Morbark will be added to their product lines, along with Atlas Copco and Finn.
“Many of the lines we carry will overlap such as John Deere and Sakai, so the increased availability of parts and special service tools will help all of us.”
Brian Dillenback, general manager of James River Equipment, further expanded on the products that have been available in the western part of the state and have now expanded into the eastern half.
“We are very excited to support the various manufacturers that we represent including Morbark wood processing equipment and Atlas Copco drilling solutions. We will also have coverage for the Finn bark blowers and hydroseeders and the Eager Beaver trailer line to name a few.”
Customer service also is set to improve and expand with the addition of personnel and six new service trucks.
“The combination of increasing our parts on hand at the new locations in eastern North Carolina and adding service technicians will benefit all of our customers.
“We value tremendously the customers’ experience when it comes to support from our company,” said Dillenback. “When I look across our company I am always very proud at the level of attention we give the product support portion of our business. It’s the largest contributing factor to our overall success, we invest heavily in our training programs and parts stocking parameters.”
Mark Romer, president of James River Equipment echoed Thomas’ and Dillenback’s sentiments regarding this new opportunity.
“I am very excited to expand our James River Equipment construction and forestry operations into eastern North Carolina. Our success in Virginia and in western North Carolina can be attributed to our focus on selling quality products and on supporting those products with exceptional service. We are looking forward to doing the same for our new customer base in eastern Carolina.
“Our commitment to people, relationships and partnerships has been the foundation of our company going back three generations. This fundamental trait of our organization will continue to be our primary focus in our new territory. We are here for the long term and we are here to support our customer base with the quality service that is expected from a James River Equipment facility.”
With the addition of RW Moore, James River Equipment now has 36 locations serving Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
For more information, visit www.jamesriverequipment.com.
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