Wenstrom Equipment
The Langdon dealership that persisted
“It’s never a good time,” says Ron Wenstrom, but I have a feeling that the harvest season is particularly awful for a farm equipment dealer on a chaotic afternoon. We’re here to talk about the history of the business, and we are doing just that. The story begins with a tractor called Charlie.
Charlie arrived at the established team of Wenstrom Equipment in Langdon, Alberta in the late 1960s. Needing a forklift, the group figured they could adapt something to fit on a tractor with a front-end loader. When they heard about the 1940s Farmall M for sale at a dealer in Carbon, they decided to use it until they could buy a real forklift. Ed Wenstrom went to investigate. An agreement was made, but Ed was informed that the sale would be conditional. “That tractor is going to be called Charlie. It's not going to be ‘The Tractor’. It's not going to be ‘The Farmall M’, its name is Charlie.” When Ed got back to his own dealership, he let everyone know about the situation he had to agreed to. Charlie joined the business.
Ed Wenstrom had farmed south of Langdon for decades. His family had immigrated to southern Alberta from Andover, Illinois in 1906 when Ed was a toddler. Ed had married Victoria (“Torrie”) in 1934, and the pair had four children. They were members of the United Church and the I. O. O. F. Lodge in Langdon, deeply rooted members of their community. In 1947, Ed noticed that International Harvester (IH) was advertising in local newspapers for someone to open a dealership in their area. Ed wrote for details, and a rep from International came to visit. The Wenstroms opened their new building and business in Langdon in 1948, selling both trucks and farm equipment.
Torrie was the partsman and bookkeeper. She spent the day at work, coming home to make lunch and supper, and worked in the evenings to get the invoices out. Ron notes that both of his parents worked 14 – 15 hours a day, but it was Torrie who had three jobs.
Ron never really considered doing anything else. Even as a teenager, he was spending hours at his family’s business. He favoured trucks but liked tractors nearly as much. In those days, a typical customer was a no-nonsense farmer in their fifties or sixties who had lived through the Great Depression. They were half section to two section guys, with a six-section farm being considered quite large by the standards of the day. And they were brand loyal, not willing to mix and match. They usually paid by cheque, although Ron remembered hearing Ed ask a customer with a large outstanding bill to settle the account. Ed was informed that the bill would be paid in its entirety on 30 December and not a day sooner. It turned out that this was an annual tradition for this farmer, who visited every business he owed money to on 30 December, no doubt leaving other business owners scratching their heads (and perhaps gripping their seats).
Wenstroms employed up to five employees, with the occasional subcontractor working from home. One man who worked for the Wenstroms was known as a thorough, reliable and capable mechanic. He was also known for his extensive vocabulary. It was said that he could swear for five minutes without using the same word twice. His colourful stories were told with no sensitivity for the audience – a pastor, a political candidate, or an elegant neighbour would all be treated to the same tabloid-style neighbourhood gossip. Nevertheless, he was a respected mechanic and sub-contracted for the Wenstroms for years.
Greatest hits for International Harvester included Charlie’s kin, the flawless Farmall M. It was a smash hit for IH, with the turbocharged 1206 a close runner up. “It was nothing short of bulletproof,” Ron reports, adding that the 1206 also became the first North American tractor to hit one hundred horsepower. The 1206 was a giant, intended for work on a big farm. Today, a restored 1206 will sell for new tractor money, around $50,000 - $60,000. The 856 was another win, with ninety-four horsepower and a cab. Of course, there was the occasional blunder, and the biggest was ironically the precursor to the 1206. The 660 was “an unmitigated disaster”. It had a long turning radius, was tough to start and it was even difficult to climb on and off. As for trucks, the KB 1 pick up and the 1600 Load Star grain truck were both winners. The Load Star dominated the midsized market and was used as delivery trucks and in fire departments. Some are still on the road.
International was known for solid products, and they had loyal dealers and a near fanatical customer base. In the 1970s and 1980s, that would change. A book by Barbara Marsh called A Corporate Tragedy details the unfortunate events. Ron Wenstrom lived through it. In the 1970s, International began misleading their dealers about the financial, engineering and mechanical problems they were having. The parts were not there, and the products were poor to begin with. Trying to reconcile confused and angry customers, the dealers were told that any problems they were facing were their own fault. The instability and mistrust were devastating.
In 1979, International made a major marketing shift. They closed all regional dealers in favour of a large, centralized location in Calgary. That store operated for three years and then went bankrupt. In 1980, Allis-Chalmers bought out the failing business. The new president intended to break the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. What happened instead was the longest UAW strike in history, lasting over six months. In 1983, International closed all its truck dealerships, and Allis failed entirely in 1985. The rollercoaster did not end until a group decided to form AGCO in 1988. Today, AGCO is worth $9 billion dollars.
Working with AGCO was the first time Ron felt confidence in a group. After years of being gaslit (manipulated or exploited), AGCO solicited feedback about the mistakes they were making, asking where they were getting their decisions wrong – and listened. AGCO created thirteen regions in North America, with elected representatives from each district. In 1996, Ron was elected the National Dealer Panel Chair.
The difficulties the Wenstroms faced as a dealership during those years have of course changed in some respects, but today there are new challenges. Currently, the social media “Right to Repair” revolt has exposed a hurdle facing agriculture that the aviation industry has been navigating for decades. Farmers are advocating for the right to fix their equipment themselves, but John Deere, Case, and increasingly AGCO are offering warranties that will be voided if farmers work on their own equipment. This has created an environment where farmers have a permanent, subscription-based relationship with their dealers. The products may be good, but the customer is at the bottom of the priority list.
As for dealerships, the days of answering an advertisement to open a business in your area are over. $10 million dollars would not be an interesting investment for Case or Brandt, so needless to say “one guy” family dealerships are rare. The conditions also make it difficult to sell a business. If a customer has a poor experience at one dealership, the nearest alternative may be hundreds of kilometres away – and potentially owned by the same group they had the original problem with.
The Wenstroms would stay with AGCO until 2012; today they offer Short Line products and farm repairs. A population boom in Langdon since the 1990s has seen changes to the business, with fuel sales increasing significantly. Demand for tire sales and mechanical services for trucks have also risen. The population growth also meant that Langdon got its own fire service after decades of relying on Strathmore. Ron attended an information session discussing the proposed change in the 1990s with a sceptical attitude shared by other community members. He then spent 33 years as the station chief, retiring only last year. His son and grandson are still with the service, and they respond to an average of 520 calls a year.
There have been numerous plot twists after so many decades in business. Charlie was one of them. Charlie spent years with the Wenstroms, until he was eventually sold to a local farmer who was persistent about wanting to give Charlie a new home. Since Charlie had been through two new engines and the Wenstroms owned a forklift by that time, the deal was made on the condition that the tractor’s name would always be Charlie.
But a few years later, the Wenstroms were trying to choose a graduation gift for their grandson. Charlie had been in a shed since the unexpected death of the new owner. Ron takes up the tale from here:
So, I called and said, ‘Is Charlie for sale?’ She said, ‘No, Charlie's not for sale.’ So, we looked around for other things. I couldn't really find anything, so I called her, told her the story and why I wanted Charlie back, and she said, ‘Yes, but you know, we paid $600 for that tractor, so I want $600.’ So, we bought the tractor. [Our grandson] had it in the parade here, and he's taken it over to Tim Hortons several times to get a coffee. He's taken it up to Dairy Queen, too.
It was the perfect gift for someone descended from four generations of tractor dealers.
I stepped outside; the 76th harvest season for Wenstrom Equipment is in full swing, and Charlie is basking in the September sunshine next to the fuel pumps. It doesn’t get much more meaningful than that.
Thank you to the Wenstrom Family for their dealership history and to Shelly McElroy for preparing this story. Thanks also to the Historical Society of Alberta for their funding support.
