PERRY, Iowa – Van Wall Equipment and Phelps Implement, John Deere dealers with a similar 40-year history of family ownership, have agreed to join together as one company. The combined dealership organization will include the current Phelps Implement locations of Green, Grundy Center, Hampton, and Hubbard, Iowa. Those locations will officially begin operating as Van Wall Equipment on Nov. 13, 2017. At that time the Van Wall Equipment operation will include 25 Midwest locations. The agreement is subject to John Deere approval.
“This additional scale allows us to add expanded on-time service and parts support along with a significantly larger available parts inventory,” says Don Van Houwelling, CEO of Van Wall Equipment. “We are able to leverage our parts and aftermarket support resources via our same-day intra-store parts transfer system and evolving service dispatch capabilities.”
To ensure the same level of engagement in the local Phelps area, Randy Runge, the current General Manager of Phelps will be joining the Van Wall leadership team. Along with his wife Lori, Randy will also be an investor in Van Wall Equipment. Randy started in 1980 when Phelps implement was a single store location in Grundy Center. He started as a part time-employee, and within a year he became full time as a consumer products mechanic. He then continued to work his way through the business as an agricultural mechanic, salesman, sales manager, and, since 2010, general manager.
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