JayDee AgTech’s nine dealerships are spread throughout the vast province of Saskatchewan. From the westernmost store in Leader to the easternmost store in Kelvington is a 6-hour trek, and driving from Swift Current to North Battleford takes about 3 hours.

This arrangement can help the company ride out bad weather, and gives it some unique options for moving equipment between stores.

“There’s a lot of land separating the stores,” says Duane Smith, CEO/general manager, JayDee AgTech. “One of the benefits of putting that kind of structure together is weather diversification. There’s substantially different weather patterns on the western side of the province compared to the northeastern side. From a risk perspective, being spread out prevents the company from being deeply affected because of bad weather in one particular area.”

The other benefit to having stores spread throughout a wide area is in product demonstrations and selling equipment. JayDee AgTech can demonstrate a drill in Swift Current and then move it to northern stores when planting season starts there.

The same is true for selling used combines. “In Swift Current, we can take in trades after harvest and actually sell those machines in the north or northeast while they’re still harvesting,” says Smith. Some used combines have had two harvest seasons on them in one year before being resold.