Nelson Motors and Equipment has been in the new building for its Estevan location for a little more than five months, and the employees and customers have really noticed a big difference.
Nelson Motors moved into the new building, which measures about 40,000 square feet, back in November. It’s several times larger than the previous store and parts building, which was about 6,000 square feet.
Alf Tide, the store and sales manager for Nelson Motors’ Estevan outlet, said everything is working well and everyone now has lots of room to work.
“It’s a bright building,” Tide said in an interview with Agri News. “It has a lot of really nice features, like we have a crane in a shop now where we can reach every inch of the building, so we can pull an engine out from anywhere in the shop.”
The customers love the new building as well.
“They can just tell that we’re going to be able to serve them better,” said Tide. “We’re going to be able to service equipment better, and we’re going to be more efficient in our shop. That’s really the big advantage that we have now, is we have the ability to put a lot more equipment in our shop, and keep our technicians busier, rather than having them move equipment in and out all the time.”
One of the highlights of the new building is a Kardex machine in the parts department. Nelson Motors can store 55,000 parts numbers in a really small area.
“It’s a place where we can keep our seasonal parts and our slow-moving parts, so that we can keep our faster-moving parts on the shelf. This Kardex machine probably stands 50 or 60 feet high, and it has 55 trays in it. You push a button, it’s all computerized, and it brings down whatever parts you want, and so it stores a lot of parts in a very compact area.
“I believe it’s one of three in Saskatchewan, so we’re state of the art, which is good, and it’s quite a change from what we had.”
Tide noted that since the Estevan location is the closest to the U.S. border among Nelson Motors’ five dealerships, it plays a key in the company’s operations.
“A lot of the oil, the net wrap and twine that comes up, it also makes sense to leave it here, because we have two stores to the east of us and two stores to the west of us,” said Tide. “So now we have the storage space to be able to keep all of this, and of course, to be able to keep more inside, which is always good.”
The old building was relocated to a farm south of Hitchcock in February.
A grand opening celebration for Nelson Motors’ new building is March 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Coffee and snacks will be served throughout the day, and a ribbon cutting ceremony is at 3 p.m.
Industry representatives from John Deere, Shor-Line, Macdon, Highline are expected to be present.
