Farm Equipment editors met with the Yetter and Martin Industries ownership groups in Elkton, Ky., earlier this month following the announcement that Yetter was acquiring Martin. 

Steve Martin, President of Martin-Till provided some details on the monumental deal, and what his role will be in the organization. 

“Yetter has doors open that I can't open. We have always complemented each other's product lines. I feel like they can take us to another level with their global reach, their additional OE platforms that that maybe we can get into. I never wanted to run a company and definitely didn't want to be part of HR, but my strength is seeing a problem, getting a thought of how to fix it and taking that and running with it. And Dad was the same way.”

“Once we get that first prototype built, then the real work starts and that's where we would get bored. We've got countless examples of that that I could mention, but, we have also been careful about what products we did choose to push out there. We've got dozens of things we've built oneoffs or one set of that have worked well, but the headache of taking it to the next level, marketing, doing fit up documents and what-not were just overwhelming.”

“So [Yetter] acquiring Martin will give me more freedom to do what I do best and let somebody else take the reigns of the day-to-day running of the company. So mom and dad, Dad was okay with it. He gave his blessing. I want to be real clear here. This is not a reaction to his death. This was in preparation, in plans from way back. So Mom, I have her blessing as well.”

As we reported previously, the Martin-Till brand will remain. Steve Martin will also stay on in an R&D, innovation type role. He reiterated that each brand will operate independently behind the scenes.

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