Floyd’s Truck Center Is the FPDC November Business of the Month – Kubota Dealership Thrives in Fort Pierre
Whether you need a post hole digger for your farm or ranch or a skid steer loader for your construction job, Floyd’s Kubota Dealership has it. Since adding the Kubota dealership in 2020, Brad Blow, general manager of Floyd’s Truck Center has seen his sales continue to grow in agriculture, homeowners, and construction equipment.
Fort Pierre Development Corporation held a ribbon cutting for the new Kubota Dealership June 3, 2021, in a lot across the street from Floyd’s Truck. At that time, Blow said, “Getting the Kubota brand re-established in Fort Pierre had been a three-year process.”
Floyd’s Kubota has two locations including Fort Pierre and Belgrade, Montana. Floyd’s started offering Kubota equipment in Fort Pierre in September 2020. Floyd’s Truck Centers are located in Fort Pierre, Rapid City and locations in Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana.
Initially Blow thought the agriculture line would be the most popular but he has found that homeowners and construction have done well, too. Blow said, “On the agriculture side we have disc mowers, tedders, rakes, balers, wrappers and spreaders. On the homeowners side, we have the small compact tractors, zero turn mowers, and a lot of attachments like box blades along with rotary mowers. On the construction side, the excavators, skid steers, and wheel loaders are our three main products that are selling.”
“Right now sales and parts are working out of our truck dealership,” said Blow. “We do have a separate building where the service work for Kubota is being done but we are looking at building onto this building or in our other lots. We just haven’t decided yet because it hasn’t been an ideal time the way prices are and trying to find someone who has time to do it.”
“Parts and service are about 70% of our business but sales is the real driver on the Kubota side right now,” according to Blow. They work on other brands of equipment if they can get the parts.
The popular items like skid steers and larger tractors are harder to keep in inventory. Trucks are another story; they rely on the online truck paper to find and sell used trucks. “It takes a year now to get a new truck,” said Blow. “Trailers are a big thing right now like drop decks and side dumps. We also sell consumer line trailers for the Kubota equipment.”
Floyd’s Truck Center has been involved in the Build Dakota Scholarship program for at least two years and have two students at Lake Area Tech studying Diesel motors. Blow said, “They will finish this year and at the end of next semester come back to work full time. We have been promoting to the two school systems to bring their juniors and seniors over to go through the facility and get an idea of what the business is about and if it’s something they want to do.” Blow added, “My service manager that has been with me quite a while went through Lake Area Vo Tech on a different program.”
Blow concluded, “Lake Area Vo Tech is now offering Kubota training and I am excited about that!”