Business is as usual at Nykolaishen Farm Equipment at Kamsack and Swan River and at Nykolaishen Ag Central in Kamsack, following the purchase of the businesses by Pattison Agriculture.
The sale was effective March 31, said Ron Nykolaishen, general manager of the business, who said the staff, including himself and his wife Theresa, are continuing to work at the business, which will retain the Nykolaishen name.
“We’re very happy to be part of the Pattison team,” Nykolaishen said.
Currently, the business employs a total of 80 persons.
Pattison has been into John Deere dealerships for a few years now and it was looking to grow, said Dave Cobb of Vancouver, who is the business’s managing director of corporate development.
Cobb said that he had met Ron and Theresa Nykolaishen a few years ago and he is now excited to be getting together with them and their sons who have agreed to continue working at the business.
“It’s an excellent business and we’re pleased to have them join our company,” he said, adding that the Nykolaishen holdings are the 18th and 19th John Deere dealerships in Manitoba and Saskatchewan that Pattison now owns.
“We do not want to disrupt an excellent business,” he said, referring to Nykolaishen’s. “We are there only as support.”
The Nykolaishen machine dealership is a fourth generation business in Kamsack, which will be celebrating its 91st anniversary in 2017.
The company was founded in 1926 by Steve and Helen Nykolaishen as a Cockshutt dealership in Kamsack. The business grew through the years and George, who is Steve and Helen’s son, and his wife Adeline, entered the business in the early 1960s. George and Adeline’s son Ron and his wife, Theresa, followed in the 1970s.
Today, Ron and Theresa’s three sons, Nolan, Chad and Chris are also active in the family enterprise, which had taken on the John Deere franchise in 1986.
Among other family members employed at the business is Ron’s sister Sandy Nykolaishen, who works in the accounting department, and brother Allan, who is the parts manager for both stores.
Nykolaishen’s had expanded into Swan River in 1996 when it purchased Powell Farm Equipment Ltd. from Dave Powell.
NCC Nykolaishen Farms, a separate business, is not a part of the sale to Pattison.
