Big Equipment: Rising from the ashes

From the ashes of a fire that burnt down Big Equipment on Christmas Eve 2017, new growth is happening right now, Ron and Tim Harmon said.

Big Equipment owner Ron Harmon said construction of a new facility on the site of Big Equipment just south of the intersection of U.S. highways 2 and 87 is only Phase One of their project to rebuild the facility and grow the company. With time, he added, they can expand the business and build new Big Bud tractors.

Big Equipment specializes in working on large farm equipment, especially Big Bud Tractors. Harmon bought the Havre company in the 1970s, and manufactured the two largest tractors in the world.

Harmon said, rather than the fire being a complete negative, they have taken it as a way to expand the business and explore new opportunities for the company.

Phase One, he said, is building a dealership as well as getting their management, sales and parts department up and running.

"We want to take a little while to figure out what Phase Two will look like," he said.

The new dealership that they are building, Harmon said, is fully capable of expanding over time, even doubling if needed.

He added that the new facility in construction, now, will be approximately 12,000 square feet.

The previous Big Equipment building, which housed both the rebuild operations as well as all the other operations for the company, he said, was 40,000 square feet, although, he added, that space was not efficient for the operation.

"We knew we needed a more uniform facility for parts, sales and a training center," he said. "We're excited about it; we think that this will allow Big Equipment to grow and do a better job with its customers and run a better organization."

He added that another change is that they have hired Dan Spiker as the general manager with Spiker handling the day-to-day operation for the company. Harmon said they have also brought in a new service manager and another sales person.

He said they had a specific idea of what they wanted it to look like if they were going to bring new management in and do it differently.

They have accomplished goals in both areas, he said.

"I think we got some really, really good people we have brought in," Harmon said.

"If it weren't for our customers, first off our employees, that have stuck with us, this would not be here," Harmon said. "I mean, it just wouldn't be here, there would be no reason for it, so we want to give high accolades to our customers, to our employees."

His son, Harmon Properties Vice President Tim Harmon, said in a separate interview that because of the fire the company was able to start new and rebuild. He said the new facility that is being built will be specifically a dealership and a parts store.

The construction

Ron Harmon said before they could work on constructing the new building they had to remove the debris and conduct a complete tear down of what was left of the old facility after the fire. Due to the harsh winter last year, that process took months, he said, but they were already beginning to plan the new facility and how they could restructure the company.

They knew that they didn't want all of the operations under one roof this time, he said

Harmon said that he expects to be able to be in the the new building by spring or early summer of this year.

The new facility will be more customer-friendly, he said, as well as having a number of amenities that were not previously available.

"We are not trying to rush this along. We want a quality facility," he said.

Clausen and Sons Construction is doing a beautiful job in building it, he added.

He said architect Becky Miller has really "stepped up to bat" and helped them achieve their our goals on what the building should be and what it should look like and how to meet their needs.

Harmon said that Big Equipment has been doing very well over the past year despite of the fire.

The changes in the new building, he said, will allow them to expand and provide much better support to their customers. He added that this will provide a more-efficient work space and a more-efficient parts sales department.

The equipment they use is not getting less technical, it is getting more technical, Harmon said

"What we think we are able to do with this facility is to step up and address that," he added.

One of the new additions to Big Equipment's facility will be a media center used to educate employees and customers on how to safely and properly use their equipment, he said.

"We are going to be using that a lot," he said. "We see that as the future in the ag business, that knowledge must be shared with your suppliers and vendors, it must be shared with your employees, and, further, it must be shared with your customer base."

He added that he believes that idea is a new trend for the agricultural business.

"This is the future," he said. " ... It is absolutely necessary," he added. "We can't just keep going down this road with this technological equipment and just expect everyone to, I don't know, just learn it through osmosis. We gotta do better than that. For us this is way more than just another office building."

The new facility will also have a large area for parts and a coffee bar for customers, he said.

Harmon said he wants the new building to be welcoming to people who come in and have his employees working with customers on what their needs are and providing supports and service the best way possible.

"It's time to get back to the basics," he said.

"The idea of this building is that when you step in through the front door, you don't have to go to other parts of the building to get what you need as a customer," he added. "Whether it be sales, whether it be a training center, whether it be the parts department, it's not in multiple facilities. Pretty much everything that affects this business will be managed out of here."

The past year

Big Equipment has been renting office space near the Atrium Mall for the past year, Harmon said. They have also leasee a shop, west of town, where employees can specifically work on rebuilds and repairs. He said acquiring this building in the early months of 2018 allowed them to quickly get up and get servicing taken care of.

Harmon added that business has, in fact, grown in the past year.

"The ag business, meaning farmers in our region, equipment business has been challenging over the past two to three years," Harmon said. "Commodity prices being the No. 1 problem, you have to have healthy farmers to buy new or used equipment. That hasn't improved much over the past year but, overall, sales and business have grown over the past year, after the fire. We are a bit surprised at that."

The rebirth of the Big

Bud tractors

Harmon said that he believes that it is hard to be all things to all people and harder to be good at everything and that is why Big Equipment has contracted with Rome Industries to build new Big Bud tractors.

He said that they have an agreement with Rome Industries, a company and has been in the agricultural industry for a long period of time that does quality work, to do the manufacturing. He added that there is no timeline yet for when Big Buds will be back in production.

Big Bud is world-famous for manufacturing the Big Bud 747, the largest farm tractor in the world, along with more than 500 other heavy-duty articulated tractors, most of which still are in use.

Recently, Big Equipment upgraded a Big Bud for a customer, making that tractor the second-largest in the world.

Tim Harmon said that it would take tens of millions of dollars to build a facility to build Big Bud tractors themselves, so Big Equipment decided to contract out the manufacture of the tractors. Rome Industries has shown interest for a long period of time, Harmon added, and with the company's reputation, he believes they will do a good job.

Harmon said that the tractors may be made outside of Havre, but the tractors' roots will always be firmly planted in Havre and Big Equipment will have them available once they go into production.

Ron Harmon said that since the fire he has received a number of phone calls from all across the country as well as overseas regarding the future of the Big Bud tractors.

While the No. 1 thing Big Equipment stands for is that technology is a good thing, Harmon said, major companies have gone too far with making specific, specialized equipment that only specialists can work on. He said he believes that when they are building tractors, they should go back to standardized components and go back to tractors that most anybody can fix. He added that this has been lost over the past few years within the industry.

"We believe in building heavier-duty tractors and components than what are generally offered with the major industry," he said.

He said the new Big Bud tractors will be utilizing higher technology when needed but standardized higher technology so that most mechanics know how to work on it.

The customer needs options, he added. In the past there used to be 13 manufacturers back in the 1980s, now, he said, there are maybe four. Harmon said people need more and more competition in the market to assure better equipment.

Tim Harmon said that Big Equipment receives numerous complaints from customers that the equipment that they purchase is over-complicated and over-specialized.

"Instead of trying to be all things to all people, make equipment that can be worked on by all people," Ron Harmon said. "That is how it has to be."

He added that it has been fun taking Big Equipment to where it is today.

"We have been blessed with some experiences that have been helpful and supportive to some of the decisions that they are having to make now," he said. " ... We are not going to lose where we were at before."