December 15 was a big day for Titan Machinery, an ag and industrial equipment dealership with 71 locations in seven upper Midwest states and over 1,500 employees.

On that day the “shared resources headquarters” was officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony at their West Fargo, N.D. location.

David Meyer, Titan Machinery’s chairman and CEO, told those in attendance the company is very fortunate to have their roots in this region. “From this region came pioneers in the ag and construction business industry that gave us such things as the skid-steer loader, air seeders and four-wheel drive tractors,” Meyer said. “Just like in the case of Titan Machinery, the success has come from the efforts of the people in this area.

“And right here in Fargo we are fortunate enough to have the factory here that makes the world’s best four-wheel drive tractors and front end loaders.”

According to CFO and president Peter Christianson, the addition of the shared resource headquarters further strengthens their concept of a “strong store model” which allows each individual store to focus on their customers and service to them. Items such as accounting, marketing, human resources and IT are done in this central location for all their stores.

“By doing that we gave the store managers more time to what we want them to do, and that’s (serve) their customers,” Christianson said. “And at the same time the folks that we have here in our shared resources headquarters specialize in each of the things we do here and can do a better job of it than each individual store.”

The new building contains 48,000 square feet of work space, with 40% of the space dedicated to office space, 30% in a common area with a cafeteria, and many conference rooms, 15% dedicated to training and the final 15% will be committed to parts inventory. The building is also designed that future expansion will be easily attainable.

Before the completion of this facility, the Titan Machinery headquarters was operating out of three different locations scattered around Fargo, which Christianson said was a challenge at times.

The new headquarters building utilized the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) concept, which meets design and certification requirements developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It uses high R-value roof and wall systems, and the underground parking garage acts as a “heat sink,” which when used in conjunction with high-efficiency heat pumps and off-peak electric heating significantly reduces heating and cooling costs.

In addition to being environmentally-friendly, the new facility also has many employee-friendly features such as the commons area mentioned above that maximizes intradepartmental collaboration. This is accomplished by multiple conference rooms, an on-site cafeteria, and energy efficient windows that provide natural lighting to offices and workspaces.

“The building is sort of representative of our company,” Christianson said. “It’s functional, built to be efficient, scalable and demonstrates our commitment to the industry.”

U.S. Congressman-elect Rick Berg also made a few remarks at the ceremony and congratulated Titan Machinery on the opening of the new facilities.??“

There aren’t too many companies that have the track record that Titan Machinery has had over the past two years,” he said. “This is a shared resource center and everyone else has headquarters. It works here because those who are closest to their customers are empowered to solving their customers’ problems.”

Meyer used the ribbon cutting ceremony as a chance to announce the continued growth of Titan Machinery by announcing that the company is adding six more Nebraska dealerships to the list, which will bring the total to 77 locations.