E & S Equipment plans open house at its new showroom

LANARK – The new showroom for E & S Equipment, a joint venture between Eastland Fabrication of Lanark and Stutsman Inc. from Hills, Iowa, is up and running.

An open house is planned from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 22.

“We’ll be serving a light lunch and have some door prizes, just to make people aware that we’re here and ready to help them,” said Anna Ohlwine, who handles inside sales and parts. From Polo, she’s been with E&S since day one in September, shortly after the building was completed in August.

“Early spring is a good time to have people stop in, look at sprayers, and check out our other product lines,” Ohlwine said. “Many farmers think that we only handle liquid manure equipment, but we can handle the needs of just about any farm in the territory at some level.”

She said representatives from their product manufactures, as well as Stutsman’s, will be on hand at the open house.

Greg Nieman, of Freeport, takes care of outside sales, and is the face of E&S Equipment in its tri-state sales territory.

“The territory has been expanded, from the Wisconsin border south to Interstate 80, and from Iowa to Indiana, and into Wisconsin with Nuhn products,” Nieman said.

Nieman started in May, going through a month of training with Stutsman’s and another few weeks at some manufacturer’s training.

“We’ve been busy, shipping parts, billing, and lots of correspondence and bids for our customers,” Ohlwine said. “We have a huge territory. Plus, we partner with Eastland Fabrication for pump installation, equipment repairs and warranty work.”

“We’ve got a lot of invitations out,” Nieman said. “But our customers are happy to hear that we are in northwestern Illinois selling and servicing this equipment.”

The partnership was announce in April. Earthmoving started at the end of May, and the showroom was completed in August.

“This venture is a great opportunity for us to be closer to our customers in the agricultural area that we currently serve,” said John Yoder, vice president of waste handling equipment with Stutsman. “There is a need for our equipment in this area, and what we are accomplishing here is bringing our business closer to our customers, so they don’t have to drive two to three hours or more to come to us in Iowa,” Yoder said.

Steve Coulthard, one of the co-owners of Eastland Fabrication, along with Mike Sweitzer and Kim Haan, office manager, said, “Everything they sell, we’ll be able to offer here. It’s a great opportunity to grow.”