Listen Here: Profit Matters 9-2-16
by Ken Root
After Selling the High Clearance Sprayer Company, former owner says he will still have a role. In a free economy, people have an idea, and start a company to generate their livelihood from the product or service they have developed. However, many companies that are privately owned sell to larger companies who gain their technology and market share.
Earlier this year, John Deere bought Hagie Corporation, based in Clarion, Iowa and maker of high clearance field sprayers. These are big units that have four wheels far below the cab and long spray boom.
During the Farm Progress show, Allan Hagie spoke to Ken Root this week about his role in the new relationship with John Deere.
Alan Hagie was standing under one his company?s high clearance sprayers at the Farm Progress Show. He seemed eager to tell the story of John Deere buying a controlling interest in the sprayer business that makes the Cadillac of the industry today and what his role may be in the years ahead.
Hagie said, “The awesome thing about it is I don’t have a title. When Deere approached us and wanted to work with us, as it got more serious I realized I am not going to want to run this company in that environment. I am use to running it the way that we were running it. With Deere involved I just didn’t see myself fitting into that and being the CEO in that role.” He continued on by saying, “I basically had the opportunity to write down exactly what I wanted to do and where I felt that I would have the biggest impact. When I did that, I decided I really love the innovation side. Going out and understanding what’s in the market place, and what are the challenges in the market place, and how can we solve those challenges.”
Hagie explained he felt the need to sell the company because they got themselves into a situation where they had a lot of demand for their product. “We had to make a decision to grow that factory direct model or align with Deere and go through their distribution channel. It made sense to go through the distribution channel, because it was too challenging to do it the other way, Hagie said.”
