Ag Manufacturers Need To Embrace The Unexpected
April 16, 2012 One of my favorite lines from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” comes from the beginning. The three main characters have just escaped from a chain gang to look for some treasure one of their members has hidden away (which is merely a ruse to get the other two characters to go along with escaping). The trio ends up hitching a ride on a railroad handcart powered by a blind seer.
“You seek a great fortune,” says the seer to the characters. “You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek.” And their adventure begins . . .
I was reminded of this quote on a recent visit to Mid-State Tank Co. in Sullivan, IL. In business for 26 years, Mid-State Tank makes a variety of tanks for numerous big name ag manufacturers such as AGCO, GVM and Case IH. The company also provides tanks for municipal water storage and local fire department tanker trucks.
For the past few years, Mid-State Tank has had the same problem other equipment manufacturers have had – simply keeping pace with new orders. To solve this issue, the company recently began an expansion of its facility (which is still ongoing at this time). According to Gery Conlin, president, the idea was for this added space to allow Mid-State Tank to repositioning its manufacturing split.
“We wanted to have a percentage split of about 60% for ag and 40% for non-ag after the expansion was complete,” said Conlin.
However, this best laid plan didn’t pan out quite the way Conlin expected. Because of the recent boom in all things related to agriculture, Mid-State Tank’s ag tank business has continued to grow at a rapid pace. “So the majority of our expanded capacity has ended up in ag tank production,” he said. “Today, I would guess our market share split is around 80% for ag tanks and 20% for non-ag tanks.”
So Mid-State Tank is finding its fortune, though not the one it expected. Either way, the company – along with the other equipment manufacturers that do business in both ag and non-ag arenas – probably won’t complain too much over this state of affairs.
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