It has been the season for acquisitions as it has been announced that Rish Equipment, based out of Bluefield, WV, has purchased the Virginia assets of Mitchell Distributing Co., effective April 30. Mitchell was purchased on April 1 by Linder Industrial Machinery Co.
Rish Equipment was the Komatsu dealer for West Virginia and west of I-77 in Virginia. Now the company will cover both states, taking on Mitchell’s previous facilities in Opal, Chester, Salem and Chesapeake, VA.
According to Dan Pochick, president of Rish, the deal was of interest to both parties. “We always have had an interest in the other part of Virginia and they had an interest in selling, so there was a mutual interest.”
He noted that the transaction took approximately six weeks. “It went very smoothly,” Pochick said. “When you can accomplish a deal t his size in six weeks or less, that shows a lot of cooperation between both parties.”
This purchase will do a lot for the company, which primarily focuses on the mining industry in the Virginias. “For us, it does two things. First it gives us diversification. Our company is in the mining area, so we fluctuate with the ups and downs on the mining industry. This acquisition also gives us the expansion we need, which in turn will give us more revenue,” Pochick explained.
He continued, “With the trend on the manufacturing end as well as the distribution side for consolidation and acquisition, we felt the need to grow our business, and the only way you can do that is through acquisition.”
The sale also will enhance Rish’s customer base. “It gives us a larger revenue base and larger capital base. with this, we can increase our service and product support capabilities. This will ultimately benefit all customers between the two states. As a privately held company that is locally owned, this can give us a better response time,” to customers’ needs, he noted.
He added that all product lines and employees will stay the same in the Virginia operations. Currently both Rish and Mitchell carry the Komatsu, Ingersoll-Rand, Esco and Leeboy product lines, as well as many others. These will stay the same for both areas.
Rish may hire a representative of aggregate equipment sales for the company, Pochick said. “This may come from within the company, we are not sure as of yet. The aggregate business is a very large part of Virginia sales. Komatsu, IR and Esco all offer those products,” he commented.
“We are excited about the addition of the Virginia group to Rish Equipment Co. Virginia is a fast growing region, its added a million residents over the past 10 years. That gives more opportunity for construction and we think it is going to be an excellent market for the company,” Pochick said.
For more information, call 304/327-8821 or visit www.rish.com.
