S and H Farm Supply grows to Rogersville

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by Jeremy Elwood|ret||ret||tab|

SBJ Reporter|ret||ret||tab|

jelwood@sbj.net|ret||ret||tab|

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Lockwood-based S&H Farm Supply has purchased 22 acres in Rogersville to replace its two-year-old Springeld store at Eastgate and Interstate 44. The main 30-acre location will remain in Lockwood, where it opened in 1974.|ret||ret||tab|

Mike Wiles, manager of the Springeld store, said the company's focus selling farming and construction supplies made space a priority.|ret||ret||tab|

"We're just choking here," Wiles said. "We've got a little less than three acres here, and we'll have 22 acres out there. Right now, whenever somebody comes to buy something we have to move two or three things just to get to it."|ret||ret||tab|

The store primarily carries New Holland equipment, specializing in hay tools, and Bush Hog agricultural brands.|ret||ret||tab|

S&H ofcials declined to disclose the purchase price for the land in Rogersville, which is at the intersection of Highway 60 and Farm Road 219. The company leases the land for its Springeld location, and Vice President Eric Schnelle is in the process of extending that lease through the end of the summer.|ret||ret||tab|

Schnelle said, "We're looking at August through October for moving, depending on whether the season is busy."|ret||ret||tab|

S & H Agriproducts Inc, a sister companyof S &H Farm Supply, broke ground in Rogersville Oct. 16 and began concrete work on the site Dec. 14. Officials hope to move in to the new store in July or August of 2005.|ret||ret||tab|

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Meager beginnings|ret||ret||tab|

S&H was founded in 1969 by Wayne Schnelle and his brother-in-law, Erwin Hedeman, in Schnelle's Lockwood home. When they started selling grain bins, the founders noticed that their initials matched the letters in the popular "S&H Green Stamp" program. They decided to draw on that popularity, calling their company S&H Farm Supply. The company is now solely owned by the Schnelle family: Wayne, his wife, Shirley, and son Eric.|ret||ret||tab|

Eric Schnelle said aside from space issues, the company also wanted more visibility than its 2520 N. Eastgate location offers.|ret||ret||tab|

"Granted, everybody knows (the Springeld store) is the old Ford tractor store or the New Holland equipment store as far as the farmers are concerned, because they've always gone there," he said. "But when we're talking to a new customer, they've never seen us before except for our advertising. So unless you're going down Eastgate, you never see us at all."|ret||ret||tab|

The $800,000 Rogersville location won't be nearly as big as the agship store in Lockwood, which sells and services large farm equipment including combines and tillers, but the new store is expected to improve exposure.|ret||ret||tab|

"We really liked the trafc count on Highway 60," Schnelle said. "I think something like 28,000 cars go through there a day, and it's pretty well trafc that all ows to Springeld and then goes home in the evening. If you're on I-44, you might have some more exposure, but a lot of that is the cross-country trafc. We just felt there was a greater percentage of local trafc on (Highway) 60." |ret||ret||tab|

Wiles said the new land has other benets as well.|ret||ret||tab|

"Our rst idea was that we'd go up by I-44, and try not to upset our customer base as much," Wiles said. "The land on the north side of I-44 between here and Strafford, the county told us they would not consider rezoning it because it's a watershed. So we looked at property south of I-44, but you're looking at industrial park prices in the $5 to $9 per square foot range, which was pretty cost-prohibitive. Then we went down by Highway 60, and they're still selling by the acre there, so we were able to get an adequate amount of land to enable us to grow and still have highway frontage."|ret||ret||tab|

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