There are few dealer success stories larger than that of Titan Machinery. From humble beginnings as Co-Founder David Meyer’s 2-store North Dakota operation in 1980 to the 147-store publicly-traded powerhouse it is today, the almost half-century history of Titan Machinery is full of progressive business practices and mentalities. Core to the company’s successes are Meyer himself and the man who was a partner in elevating the dealership to “titanic” heights: Peter Christianson.
Meyer, who will step down as CEO on Feb. 1, remains Titan’s executive chairman and the chairman of the board, while Christianson retired in 2017, having served as Titan Machinery’s president, CFO and COO at different points along the way.
What Analysts Have to Say
"Titan Machinery is one of the most effectively managed companies we've encountered in the ag sector. We're uniquely impressed by the status it has earned to be a consolidator of choice for other dealers; that other dealer groups look to Titan as the best home for the next generation of their businesses..."
Their careers were built on breaking the mold. The company survived by leaning into selling rather than pulling back during the tough 1980s, followed by a series of rapid acquisitions in early 2000s. Understanding how important capital was for their own growth, the pair took the company public in December 2007. Titan Machinery was also among the first North American dealerships to go international by expanding into the Black Sea region in 2012.
Humble Beginnings
Meyer’s entry into the ag equipment industry began in 1975 as a Case 4WD tractor product specialist straight out of college. But his time with the OEM was short-lived, and he knew he’d much prefer to work on the dealer end of things.
Bob Hope presenting David and Candance Meyer (left) along with partner Darrell Larson and his wife Colleen (right) the Top Case High Horsepower Tractor Sales award in Phoenix, Ariz., 1984. Source: Titan Machinery
Pushing Change Through Associations
David Meyer has been very involved in dealer associations over his career, particularly with the North Dakota Implement Dealers Assn., now merged into the Pioneer Equipment Dealers Assn. Former association president Bob Lamp (retired 2010) joined the association in 1978 and says Meyer brought his drive to tackle challenges to the organization. Lamp would later join Titan Machinery for 2 years and work with Meyer and Christianson on acquiring other dealers.
“He was very involved in the dealer associations,” Irwin said. “Matter of fact, he served a couple of terms as president because he wanted things to get done in the industry that really made a lot of sense. He was very people oriented. And he always thought that there was a way to solve a problem.
“He was not afraid to approach an issue, whether it was with the company or with customers or with other dealers. If there was a way, they're going to try to figure out what the way was to solve a problem. He's still not afraid to broach an issue and come to a solution.”
By November 1975, he was working for the Case dealership Meyer-Jones Farm Store in Wahpeton, N.D., and became a minority shareholder along with Case blockman Darrell Larson in 1976. In September 1977, Meyer and Larson started a second location in Lisbon, N.D. In 1980, recognizing their success was rapidly raising the value of a business they intended to one day buy, Meyer and Larson bought out the dealership’s majority shareholders and formally started the corporation that is Titan Machinery today.
Christianson, meanwhile, entered the ag equipment industry in 1972 at his family’s Steiger dealership, Christianson’s Inc., in Elbow Lake, Minn. The dealership was run by his father, Earl, who not only played a pivotal role in the initial development of the Steiger 4WD tractor but was the first and ultimately one of the largest Steiger dealers.
Peter (right) and his father Earl (left) in front of a 2200 Steiger tractor at the Steiger Anniversary Event in 2008.
In 1988, the Christianson family bought the Case IH company story in Fargo, N.D., which Christianson ran, while his business partner ran the original Elbow Lake, Minn., store. The business was renamed to C.I. Farm Power, and by 1997, it had 4 locations.
Tough ‘80s, Bountiful ‘90s
During the 1980s, Meyer saw dealers going out of business as fear caused them to pull in their horns and became ultra conservative. As a result, these dealers sold less, and their used equipment soon also dropped in value. Titan Machinery, however, took a different approach.
“We said, ‘let's manage our expenses and sell our way through this,’” Meyer says. “Let's sell more, turn our inventory and keep pushing through this thing. And it got us through the '80s.”
“Peter has a unique ability to recognize a solution to a problem, share his vision for the solution and generate the excitement needed to develop that solution into an answer to challenges Ag and Construction customers face…” – Jim Lilleberg, former VP of Marketing at Titan
Heading into the 1990s, just a few short years after the merger of Case and IH and the amicable split between Meyer and Larson, the first wave of Titan Machinery acquisitions began. Now the sole dealer-principal, Meyer began with 2 nearby acquisitions in LaMoure and Lidgerwood, N.D.
A Banker’s Perspective: Meyer’s Trend-Setting Financial Mind
David Meyer’s habit of assessing new and better ways to do things touched all areas of his business, including unassuming parts like payroll. Bruce Iserman, the now retired president of North Dakota Bremer Bank, was Meyer’s banker for many years as the business grew and recalls how Meyer’s approach to organizing his finances was impressively ahead of its time. He recalls one day in 1984 when he found Meyer organizing his employee’s financial info into separate folders.
“One day, I went out to see David and asked him what he was doing,” Iserman says. “He had made a file on every single employee that worked in Lisbon, including a pay grade and a salary description. Whether you were a truck driver, a mechanic, a parts man or a salesman, he had a file on every one of those people. He did reviews, some of them twice a year. I'd never heard of that before as it related to implement dealers. And it made the people around him know what their goals were and how they could make money, and it created a really good business atmosphere.”
Iserman admits he was overwhelmed by Meyer’s ability and knowledge to organize his staff that way. He adds that the employees had never encountered an organized system like this before.
“Once they got into the tune of knowing what they were responsible for in their job description and how they could make more money and meet their goals, that seemed to filter more into not only appreciating David but also for them to know they should be doing. And it was really an eye-opener for me where I thought, ‘This guy's got it together.’”
Iserman comments on Meyer’s relationships with farmers as well, pointing out that his personality drove people to want to work for him.
“He had that knack, that nobody that I ever worked with in my 40 years had, that kind of skill to not only be successful but make people really like to work,” Iserman says. “I didn't know anybody who didn't want to work for David. Initially, I think for a while, he had farmers coming in and doing some training, so they'd help in the winter with him, and they wanted to. He just had that personality.
“If you ask him about a particular area, he'll tell you, ‘Oh, so-and-so told me they had a good corn crop,’ or ‘I reached out to this guy the other day.’ His ability to continue to keep in contact with those farmers, even though he's more into the corporate side of it — he still wants that taste of what the farmers are thinking and doing.”
Meyer demonstrated an innate understanding of how to properly execute an acquisition. Bruce Iserman, retired president of North Dakota Bremer Bank, was Meyer’s banker at the time and saw firsthand Meyer’s progressive approach to these 2 early acquisitions. Iserman would work with Titan Machinery for over 20 years.
SLIDESHOW: Inaugural Farm Equipment Hall of Fame Class of 2024: David Meyer & Peter Christianson, Titan Machinery
“He sat down with them, walked through what they knew, what they'd like to do, and set goals for them,” says Iserman of Meyer. “Both those locations said, ‘Wow, nobody's ever taught me this.’ His skills, not only in communication but also business, helped develop those 2 locations to become successful in many ways.”
Former North Dakota Implement Dealers Assn. President Bob Lamp worked for Meyer and Christianson for 2.5 years following his retirement in 2010 and attests to the smarts the pair brought to the acquisition process decades later.
“I sat at tables in the dealerships they were buying and saw how Dave and Peter functioned with these people,” Lamp says. “They were down-to-earth and understood the emotion that comes with selling a family dealership. They were trustworthy, their word meant something and made the transitions easy. I can’t imagine two better people in this industry.”
Titan was now officially on its way to becoming one of the largest Case IH dealers and a formidable New Holland dealer as well. Meyer began the 90s armed with 3 powerful 4WD tractor brands — Steiger, Case IH and Versatile — under one roof.
David Meyer (left) and his wife Candace (right) in 1985 receiving their Top New Holland Dealer Award from Jack Snead (center), vice president of marketing for the New Holland Division of Sperry Rand.
“In the '90s, things started to turn around a little bit,” he says. “Farmers started to make some money and their balance sheets started to improve. I ordered aggressively.”
From Competitors to Comrades
Meyer spent the 1990s in expansion mode with an eye toward generating cash and paying down debt. It wasn’t long before the Christianson brothers — Peter and Tony, his investment banking brother — approached Meyer to begin their path toward an exciting growth strategy.
Peter Christianson recalls finding Meyer unassuming when they first met in 1988 in Fargo but quickly labeled him a sharp businessman. Though they competed as adjacent in-line competition, they had a mutual respect.
Peter Christianson (left) and David Meyer (right) in 2004, moving dirt for the construction of Titan Machinery’s Rocking Horse Shared Resource Office, which they occupied from 2005 to 2010.
Tony was the one who planted the seed for the merger. Having observed consolidation in other industries, he encouraged Peter to come on board with him and David in 2001, after the pair had already been in business. Peter knew the 3 of them would have enough horsepower to find significant success.
Meyer refers to Tony as a “visionary” and credits him with bringing a new level of business savvy to the organization.
Farmer Reflects on 50 Years as a Titan Machinery Customer
Russell Reinke farms out of Lisbon, N.D., and has been buying equipment from David Meyer since the late 1970s. He admits, however, that he initially didn’t think Meyer was going to make it.
“I didn't think he had a chance,” Reinke says. “That's the truth. We had 4 established dealers in our town of 2,200 people. We had dealers for John Deere, International, Allis-Chalmers and Massey Ferguson. When he came in all he had was tractors. That's all Case had at the time was tractors, and I didn't think that he could make it.”
But Reinke quickly figured out he was wrong. In fact, he says the first tractor he bought from Meyer in late 1977 took only a 15 minute sales pitch.
“I was in the market for a tractor. We had international and Oliver tractors at the time. I had a 3-year-old International 1066, and I was going to upgrade,” he says. “I stopped down there at David’s store, and there were only 3 people that worked there. The parts man, one mechanic and David ran the place plus drove the truck delivering the machinery.
“I had never met the man before. I stopped down there and was looking at tractors. His pickup came into the yard about 10 minutes to 5:00, and he introduced himself. He said, ‘I hear you're looking for a tractor.’ I had price quotes from other dealers. I had my mind made up. I was going to go with John Deere or International again. He wrote down a number on a piece of paper and handed it to me, and it was about half of the quote between John Deere and International.
“I looked at David and I said, ‘Are you sure about this?’ He scratched his head and he said, ‘You know, that's about as low as I can go.’ Right then I said, ‘You know what, I'll take your tractor.’ And it took about that long. Dave’s been a square shooter all the way along, and I’ve never known him to gouge anybody. David’s been a friend for a long time. That was my first tractor that I bought from here, but there’s been quite a few since then.”
Reinke recalls Meyer telling him that if he could simply get the tractors out the door, the parts and service would keep the store going.
To Reinke, what stands out about Meyer is that he’s completely self-made and is fully committed to his customers and employees.
“David didn't inherit anything, nobody gave him anything,” says Reinke. “He built the business, then he and Peter later on. David actually was a very good businessman. He kept good people around him. And actually when he purchased more stores around our area, he made sure that there was a good leader in those stores who understood the farmers’ needs. If you needed anything on weekends or after hours, you called up and there was somebody to answer. He always had an after hours person there.”
Meyer’s memory also impresses Reinke, who says Meyer can recall machines he traded in or bought years ago with no difficulty.
“That was one thing there that really surprised me. David has got a memory on him like you wouldn't believe it. You might be talking with Dave and he'll say, ‘Remember back in 1995, you traded in that 846 Versatile?’”
By 2003, both Christiansons had joined the Titan Machinery group, which now had 13 stores. Tony would come on as a director, a position he still holds today. And it wasn’t long after that Titan Machinery was named Farm Equipment’s 2006 Dealership of the Year.
Capitalization: Breaking the Mold
Over the next few years, Meyer and Christianson continued to acquire dealerships, expanding into Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa and notched 34 locations by 2007. Part of what made this possible was an undercapitalized dealer landscape, as well as larger and more sophisticated equipment on the market generating more demand for service. Combine that with many dealerships lacking in succession planning, and Meyer says they saw a “long runway of acquisitions.”
Recognizing their own need for capital, the company offered Series A and B preferred stock and formed a board of directors. By the end of 2006, dealership revenue was reaching hundreds of millions, which at the time, was enough to consider an initial public offering. They took a “leap of faith,” and Titan Machinery went public in December 2007.
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Jim Irwin, retired vice president of Case IH’s North American ag business considers Titan’s growth the standout moment in the pair’s career, at a time when there were only a few other publicly-traded dealerships, which he says were smaller and more focused on construction. He believes Meyer and Christianson “set the template for what growth could look like.”
“The timing was right, and the process they’d put together to sell that to the public market was excellent,” he says. “They had very professional presentations made and had their facts together. They knew the business very well.”
One additional reason to go public was to plan for executives to retire without hurting the dealership’s financials.
“In the farm equipment industry, there's what I call fleeting capital,” Christianson says. “Every time you have the generational change in a dealership, the older generation has to get paid out. And of course the tax man's in the middle of that, and so you really need to deal with that and how you keep the capital in the business to support it.
For More Information on Hall of Famers David Meyer & Peter Christianson
- Titan CEO Reflects on Company History Through the IPO
- [Podcast] Our Dealer Story: Titan Machinery
- 2006: Large Multi-Store Operation Dealership of the Year Titan Machinery, Fargo, N.D.
For a complete archive of Farm Equipment articles on David Meyer & Peter Christianson, click here!
Those who worked with Meyer and Christianson comment on their different yet complementary approaches to business. Many point to Meyer’s innate ability to conceive and achieve his goals, as well as Christianson’s ability to implement the procedures to make those goals attainable.
Irwin worked closely with the pair and saw first-hand what their partnership could achieve. Shortly after his retirement in 2005, Irwin joined Titan’s board as an independent director.
“Peter was a perfect fit for Dave, because Dave was more of a on the go and ‘get things done’ kind of guy,” said Irwin. “Peter wanted to make sure the process was in place to make it work. Peter would put the processes together to manage all this growth in revenue with acquisitions. They're a really good team that way, but it takes both. You can grow leaps and bounds, but you need the process in place for it to succeed.”
Titan Machinery CEO Reflects on Mentorship From Meyer & Christianson
Titan Machinery announced in October 2023 that then-COO Bryan Knutson would be appointed CEO effective Feb. 1, 2024. At that time David Meyer assumed the role of Executive Chairman.
Looking back on his 20 plus years at the dealership, Knutson remarks how significantly he benefited from David Meyer and Peter Christianson’s mentorship.
“They’ve both taught me so much,” he says. “One thing Dave and Peter have in common is that they both had a tremendous work ethic. They both started dealerships at a young age and borrowed all the money to do it. I’ve witnessed their passion for the business and their spirited work ethic for over 30 years, first as a customer and then the last 22 years as an employee.
“David would generally show up around 5:00 a.m. partially because he liked to be home for dinner with his wife Kandi around 6:00 p.m. to spend time with his kids earlier in his career but then later in the evening, he’d tackle paperwork or go try to sell another tractor. Peter didn’t get in until a bit later, usually around 7:00 a.m., however many nights you could still find him at the dealership 8:00 p.m. or later.”
Knutson says he made a point early on in his career of using Christianson and Meyer as a resource as often as possible. They both had a lot of respect for the customer and employees and every decision they made revolved around their customers and employees.
“It worked out well for me , starting my career in sales after transition from the parts department, my office was just 40 feet-feet from Peter’s office” he says. “It was extremely tough to catch him during the day as he was always so high energy and on-the-go. However, I knew I could often catch him at the beginning or later in the evening. Both Peter and Dave are such genuine individuals and I am very grateful for all the time they spent mentoring me despite their very busy lives.
“They both had so much more experience and were such a wealth of knowledge. They had paid their tuition, if you will, at the school of hard knocks. So it just made more sense to me to ask Peter or Dave if they’ve gone through a certain situation before and if so, how did they handle it, how did it turn out for them, what would they have done differently, etc.”
Knutson says he found both mentors not only willing to share advice and experiences but also both were leaders who allowed him to express his own thoughts. He says he really appreciated the mutual respect he felt, and how they always made him feel valued.
“Another thing I appreciated about both of them was that they were open to new ideas,” he says. “You had a limited amount of time to explain your idea, and you had to convey your logic pretty quickly. For example, we could be driving down the road, and they had maybe always taken a certain route, but I discovered that if you gave them a logical reason why they should take a different route, they’d quickly assess your idea and if it seemed better, they’d just run with it. They never let their pride get in the way, and they had a knack for recognizin g a good idea when they heard one and a keen sense to adapt and adapt quickly.
“There was definitely mutual respect. They were very inclusive and supportive, and they really made me feel valued and appreciated. I will carry with me what they taught me the rest of my career and beyond.”
Titan Machinery’s President and CEO Bryan Knutson credits much of his success to the mentorship he received from Meyer and Christianson. He describes Christianson as “targeted” in his approach, while Meyer he characterizes more by his volume of sales. But they both carried a crucial work ethic and attention to customers.
“If a customer went down, that was super important to them,” Knutson says. “They were going to stay there with the technicians, turn a wrench, run wherever across the country to get a part or give the customer a loaner. They instilled that culture throughout their companies.”
Check out more from the Dealer Hall of Fame Class of 2024:
- Ronald D. Offutt, RDO Equipment, Fargo, N.D.
- Cleve Buttars, Agri-Service, Kimberly, Idaho
- Charlie Hoober, Hoober Inc., Intercourse, Pa.
- Paul Wallem, Wallem International, Belvidere, Ill, & Central Sands International, Plainfield, Wis.
- David Meyer and Peter Christianson, Titan Machinery, Fargo, N.D.
- Ferenc (1932-2017) & Tom Rosztoczy, Avondale, Ariz.
- Earl Livingston, Livingston Machinery (Parallel Ag), Chickasha, Okla.
- Orhan Yirmibesh, Badger Farm Store, Clinton & Avalon, Wis.
- Derek Stimson, Rocky Mountain Equipment, Calgary, Alta.
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