Lowe & Young, the last names of the original owners, started in 1949. When Bill Hartzler first started working there, more than 41 years ago, Roy Lowe and Don Young were still active in the business. They’ve both since retired and passed away. Starting out as a Minneapolis Moline dealership and a Sohio gas station they also sold tractors and Lincoln welders. Back then, the road in front of the dealership was Route 30, so with heavy highway traffic, they serviced a lot of cars. Eventually, the Minneapolis Moline brand went away and Massey Ferguson, New Holland and other brands were added. 

Lowe & Young’s current president and one of 4 co-owners, Hartzler started when he was 18 years old, wanting to be a mechanic, yet the opening was at the parts counter which he enjoyed.  

“One of the owners said, ‘You just go back up to the parts counter, that’s a good spot for you.’ So I ended up working up at the parts counter for 27 years. I had an opportunity to buy stock after I had been here 14 years. We started buying out one of the retiring partners. My children were young, and while I didn’t think the timing was right, now that I look back, that’s when I had the energy, so it was a good move. The other thing we (the 4 younger shareholders at the time) had the opportunity to do is buy the real estate from the original owners, so we ended up buying that from Roy Lowe and Don Young, and that was a good move for us too.”

The 3 primary manufacturers carried are AGCO, New Holland and Krone. It has been a Massey Ferguson dealer since 1959, a New Holland dealer since 1952, started selling Fendt tractors in 2005 and Krone in 1986. Additionally, the dealership carries a number of shortlines, including Kinze, Great Plains and Woods.

While their primary focus is dairy farmers, Lowe & Young also has some customers who raise cash crops, beef, chicken and pigs. Hartzler says the diversity of customers, which includes landscapers who need skid steers, is helpful to the overall business. 

The dealer’s co-ownership program brings a generational mix to management. Changes in ownership in late 2024 due to retirements offered opportunities for younger staff to transition into larger roles. 

“Typically, Lowe & Young in the past has sold only to employees who work here,” says Hartzler. “That’s one of the requirements of the ownership group — if you retire, you sell your shares. Thankfully, right now we have 3 younger shareholders who are in the process of buying in and that seems to be working well, as 2 shareholders who had been here for a long time — 46, 47 years — have retired and we’re in the process of buying them out.”

Hartzler explains the buy-sell agreement this way: as a shareholder gets closer to retirement, the co-owners identify a younger staff member who they feel can be a future team player who they’d want as part of the owner group. From there, that person can start buying shares from the older shareholder. Presently Lowe & Young has 5 co-owners.

Growth Drivers

Lowe & Young’s growth over the past 3 years was a key factor in the minds of the judging panel for this year’s Farm Equipment Dealership of the Year selections. Total sales revenue growth in 2022 vs. 2021 was 9%, while 2023 vs. 2022 was 12% growth and in 2024 Lowe & Young achieved 10.5% growth over 2023. Hartzler did not hesitate when asked what he attributes that level of growth to.

“All glory to God is the way I look at it, but we have a great team here. The employees we have are the best. That’s worked well for us. We have a customer base that is pretty faithful to us, I think partly because we take good care of them and partly because they’re loyal, but a lot of it has to do with the team that we have in place here.

“For us, the year-over-year growth was in every department,” says Hartzler on the revenue realized by the dealership in 2024. “As for the profitability, we look at that more now as a 3-legged stool. We focused more on parts and service profitability, but now we’ve also realized that we can earn margins in selling new machinery and wholegoods and focus on that. That way it’s not just all depending on the parts and service departments, but all of them generating both top and bottom line revenue.

An aerial view of Lowe & Young in Wooster, Ohio, taken during the dealership’s 75th anniversary in 2024 reflects the expansion of space and customer growth. Lowe & Young

“If milk prices are strong, equipment is moving. If we were to look at a growth chart in the last 30 years, we could pretty much equate that when the milk prices go up, our sales go up. When the milk prices dip off, our sales dip off right with it. It’s just one of the economic drivers of our business,” says Hartzler.

Jason Steiner, vice president and co-owner, says wholegoods sales are impacted as well, noting they sell a lot more new equipment when milk prices are up and when lower, they sell more parts and fix more equipment.

Hartzler spoke frankly about the primary reasons for the dealership’s strong growth in recent years, including increasing prices and the sales team.

“We have a good team here is what it boils down to,  a tremendous team.” He says while coming from the parts counter in his early years once had him thinking there were often too many salespeople, his thoughts have evolved. 

“I think it’s proven well that if we can get a good team of salesmen out there who are promoting iron and getting a lot of units out on the ground, it’s the machine population that is what drives parts and service revenue for the next 20 years. That’s been a key thing for us.” 

Driven by core principles and a firm faith, Hartzler shared what has always guided the business: culture. 

“We try to run an honest organization here. All glory to God. We’ve had a very successful business, but when we hire people, they’re people of character — honest, hard workers. Typically, who we hire are farm kids, they’ve got a work ethic and they aren’t afraid to get out of bed in the morning. If they can milk cows before work, before school, they can work for us. We try to keep our culture, which is extremely important to us., It’s important who we hire. We’re very selective. We might interview somebody 3, 4 even 5 times before we offer them a position. We’re very careful about our culture.” 

Currently the dealership has a total of 45 full-time and 5 part-time employees.

Measuring Metrics: Absorption, Cashflow 

Hartzler focuses heavily on metrics and measuring the key performance indicators (KPI), primarily absorption rate, which were well over 100% in 2024. They do give year-end bonuses to employees which pulls down that percentage for a time, Hartzler notes.

While absorption will fluctuate throughout the year, Hartzler says he looks at it month by month and it is probably the biggest KPI the management team reviews. Cashflow is next on the list which he says may even be more important than profit. 

“At times there’s a machine coming due and you don’t want to necessarily pay a bunch of interest on it, but also you don’t want to skim the margins too much. Sometimes cashflow is better than profit, so we look at cash as well.”

He explains how a particularly helpful example of supplier support came years ago through New Holland’s Growing Dealer Profitability (GDP) program. They encouraged the dealership to put parts and service on an internal work order at full list which Hartzler says was key in helping raise the profit percentage. They also raised their shop rates which he says was necessary to support efforts to attract and keep good help.

Overcoming Challenges of a Large Territory

While the dealership’s revenue growth rate over the past 3 years has been 9, 12 and 10.5% respectively, the growth has not been without difficulties along the way. Hartzler addresses the ways he and the team have managed those challenges.

“Rapid growth like what we’ve experienced is out of my comfort zone. I like moving a little bit slower — a crawl, walk, run, but it seemed we were forced to grow rapidly. One of the stresses, probably the hardest thing, is to find and keep good help. That looks different now than it did 35 years ago. We used to be able to pick from 6 different mechanics or technicians but now it seems like the list we’re picking from is pretty slim. In addition, we also have to raise our wages to be able to compete in that arena too, because we’re not just competing with local shops. We’re competing with automotive and we’re also competing with manufacturing. There are a lot of jobs where people can earn a pretty good living, but we have got to get the best mechanics and technicians we can find ... that holds true in every department at our dealership, including parts and sales.”

Hartzler says there are challenges that come with being one of the only equipment dealers in the region, and notes the size of their primary area of responsibility (AOR): their AOR with New Holland is 3 counties; with AGCO, for years was 12 counties but is now 18; and with Krone Commercial, Lowe & Young is responsible for the entire state of Ohio.

Lowe & Young image gallery

Defining Moments 

When asked to discuss some of the dealership’s defining moments, Hartzler shares key expansions — in both physical space and on an executive level — that became notable milestones.

“The biggest thing that really put us on the map was in 2013 when we built a 12,000 square foot shop,” he says. “That was a good move. We were crunched into an old building that was built back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and we were just out of space. Another key decision that made a big difference was including some of the younger shareholders, getting them to buy in. The younger people seem to bring energy and fresh ideas, so that’s been a good thing for us. Jason and I now have 3 partners that are 20 years younger than us, so they bring the energy and a lot of the higher end technology to the plate. That’s been good.”

Strong Supplier Relationships

Nurturing strong relationships with all of its suppliers is critical for Lowe & Young. 

“It’s very important that we are working together closely, especially with our biggest lines of equipment. This morning we had 3 reps from one of our companies and 2 from another here working with our team,” says Hartzler. “It’s good to keep that relationship strong. I appreciate it when they come here. Boots on the ground mean a lot to us. When you can actually take a rep out and visit a customer, that means a lot to the customer, too. Having a good relationship with the manufacturers we work with is vital.”

Co-owner and parts manager Kyle Gasser coordinates Lowe & Young’s drop box locations to service customers from a wide geographic area across northeastern Ohio. Mackane Vogel

Steiner agrees. “That’s key. You have to keep that line of communication open. You have to let them know what you’re seeing and work through some issues at times, but they just need to know that we’re working for them and they’re working for us. It’s been a good relationship,” he says.

Lessons Learned & What Other Dealers Can Learn

Having been at the helm of the growing dealership for nearly 42 years, Hartzler says he is always looking at ways to improve, and takes a lesson when things don’t go as planned. 

“One of the things that we learned a lesson on is if you’re going to do something, you’ve got to do something that you really do well and excel in it. Don’t try something that maybe you dabble in and it doesn’t work out.” 

One example he gave was in equipment rental, which the dealership tried years back when they had a large stock of iron sitting on the lot. He says it was a life lesson to learn it wasn’t their area of expertise, so they exited that business. 

For his part, Steiner, vice president, co-owner and a New Holland Hay & Forage specialist, has been with Lowe & Young since 1989. He grew up in the business as his father had served as Lowe & Young president/CEO. As he sees it, patience is key.

“As long as Bill and I have been here, this business is always changing,” says Steiner. “Right when you think things are going well, things don’t go well and you have to take a step back, regroup. Sometimes, you have to confer with your business owners on what we all think we ought to do. Other times, you just know what to do. “

“For me over the years it’s been about patience. You work a lot of hours, spend a lot of time here at the dealership. Some days you just have to stop and think. You have to have a little patience, especially in our kind of business here where the phone is ringing constantly.” 

Steiner is now in his 36th year as a technician and comes from an 8th generation family farm. Having bought into the dealership in 1999, he says having patience and prioritizing a customer service mindset is especially the case with the variety of equipment they handle across such a wide region.

“As a business you need to know what your customers are saying, what they’re thinking,” says Steiner. “We’ve always been known for our service. You can buy parts and wholegoods off the internet but you’ll never buy service. I think we stand pretty high on that — our service aspect. We have customers coming from all over the state and beyond to deal here, not only in wholegoods but parts and service. Every one of the owners here has their specialty on what they do best and what they handle and mine is service.”

What can other dealers learn from Lowe & Young’s success? Hartzler was clear on ways the dealership has maintained a strong culture and success. 

“Pray for wisdom. I think for me, I probably spend most of my time praying for wisdom … asking for good people, smart people and surrounding yourself with people who can probably answer those questions for you. I have no college education. I grew up in this business. When you graduate from the school of hard knocks, you make a few decisions and you think, ‘Boy, I shouldn’t have done this or that, but then you learn from it. I’ve had some really great people over the years who were able to help me learn as I go. Whether it’s an accountant or an attorney or a previous owner here who was willing to mentor me, that’s who I could learn from and that was huge for me.”

Hartzler says there are 4 key steps he feels have worked well for him since becoming Lowe & Young’s president:

• Hire smart, talented people. Good managers surround themselves with good people.
• Hire happy people. Happy people make happy customers.
• Hire diligent, self-motivated employees (that’s why we hire farm kids).

Give them the tools and resources they need to do their job well and get out of their way.

“We’ve always been ‘customer first’ here,” says Steiner. “It’s about taking care of your customer. It isn’t always about the money. If you take care of your customer, you just took care of a repeat customer. A repeat customer tells their neighbors, their friends, their family so I think that’s very important. If you take care of your customers, they will continue to do business there. Thus, the money will come. You have to treat your customers fairly, be honest with them, give them a fair price, and do the work in a timely manner. That’s what’s made us successful here.”

Training Techs for Specialization

As with so many ag equipment dealers, Lowe & Young works hard to consistently meet the challenges of finding, keeping and training new talent. 

“We do a lot of training and it’s specialized. You definitely have to have a specialty and that seems to work for us,” says Hartzler. What we do now is different from what we used to do. I think back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we would have mechanics that could work on about every brand. Now we try to have them specialize in a certain area.” 

He says there are techs who work on Fendt tractors all day, others on Massey Ferguson and others on hay equipment, while others are trained on skid steers.

The dealership often has school groups come in, even middle schoolers. Hartzler says it’s good for those students to be able to see what different job opportunities are out there. 

Lowe & Young works closely with Wayne County School’s Career Center and its ag mechanics program. Out of the dealership’s 50 employees, Hartzler says about 30 of them have graduated from that program. However, it’s getting harder to find people from that program alone, says Hartzler. He says they also have quite a few employees from the Agricultural Technical Institute (ATI) and Ohio State Univ. programs.  

“Some of them are kids who grew up on a dairy farm and we trained them here. We’ve also hired some mechanics where maybe their dealership went out of business or didn’t offer health insurance or training and they came our way, and we’re glad to have them.”

Hartzler says keeping up with technology is the primary challenge ahead in the next 3 years. He intends to focus on hiring young people who are either fresh out of college or coming out of a vocational school. 

“Some of these younger people just shine with technology. Those are the people we need to go after. As a history at Lowe & Young here, we just basically hire smart people and people who can catch on extremely quickly, then we send them to training … but it’s tough.”

Parts & Service in the Spotlight

Lowe & Young completed an expansion project in 2023, doubling the size of its building. Hartzler says they’ve also focused on growth from an operational expansion standpoint.

Currently, the dealership has 26 service trucks, allowing the service department to provide remote service on customers’ farms. .

“The other thing we’re focusing on is parts drop boxes. We ship a lot of parts through these (now 14) boxes. We drop them off at different areas throughout the state so people aren’t driving so far.”

In November 20224, Lowe & Young added a parts-only location in Ashland, Ohio, 40 miles from the dealership, with 2 employees selling parts. 

“Instead of driving an hour to come here to get parts, we can meet them part way or in their vicinity, so that has also allowed us to grow.”

Collaboration is Key

The dealership’s carefully crafted coordination of its parts and service departments is both purposeful and profitable, according to the co-owners. 

The dealership has 20 technicians and a total of 12 parts staffers with 10 in Wooster and 2 at the Ashland parts location. Hartzler says they try to avoid silos, emphasizing those departments have to work together as they serve the same customer base. One way they do this is by dedicating 2 parts employees to the shop. 

“They do a very good job of covering for each other,” Steiner says. “We have a really good rapport here between the service department and parts.”

Focus Factors for Dealer Success

Hartzler was asked what the most important factors that dealers should focus on to survive and thrive are — now and in the future. He was clear and humble.

“I think it’s pretty simple: service what you sell,” Hartzler said. “For us it’s worked for 76 years. I’m sure there’s a more technical answer, but I think that if you take good care of your customers and you hire good service people and you have a good parts department, people are going to keep buying iron from you. I don’t think it’s too complicated, but maybe I’m not looking at it right.”

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Read about Lowe & Young, Wooster, Ohio

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