Morden business brings family feel to Steinbach

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This article was published 07/06/2022 (1065 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Morden-based agricultural equipment business is expanding their company to the other side of the Red River, hoping to keep the family business alive while reinventing themselves.

LMS Ag Equipment, formerly Little Morden Service, announced the construction of a 15,000 sq. ft. facility to be built alongside the former Reimer Farm Equipment on Highway 12 on the outskirts of Steinbach.

The expansion to Steinbach seemed a natural course of action, President Abe Penner said.

“It’s a community we have a bit of connection with and we feel it will be a good fit for our business,” he said.

LMS acquired Steinbach-based Reimer Farm Equipment, a combine header dealer, in 2019 before rebranding their business to better suit the direction of the company.

The agriculture sector present in Steinbach is similar to their home base in Morden, Penner said, adding the opportunity to represent brands they carry in the area is the right fit.

LMS sells a full array of farm equipment ranging from small brands to expanding their offerings in Steinbach to the full AGCO product portfolio.

The new space will not only be a dealership with more products, but it will include a service and parts department, as well as plans for a fleet of service trucks for on-farm, on-demand services.

Penner sees the business thriving in the area due to the family-oriented nature of LMS.

Before it was a dealership, Little Morden Service operated as a soup and sandwich joint with an attached gas station in the early 50s. In the late 80s Henry Penner and a partner purchased the space — which then had just 12 employees — and transformed it to what it’s known as today. Since then, it has stayed in the hands of relatives.

Now under the guidance of sons Penner and his brother, Will, LMS wishes to keep the family feel of the business at the forefront, a familiar way to conduct work in rural areas.

“We don’t want to lose the heritage and the people that have invested in this company before our generation,” Penner said.

While some may be see a local business grow to other communities as a sign of commercialization, Penner sees it as an opportunity to form new business-client relationships while maintaining close partnerships.

“We’ve noticed that going bigger and better is great in a lot of aspects, but our business is very much based around relationships and we value every relationship that we have,” he said.

“We take a lot of pride in having a relationship with all our customers, and we don’t want to lose that through this growth strategy.”

The new facility has an expected completion date of spring 2023.