UPPER ONSLOW, N.S. – Bigger, newer and better situated.
“We’re excited with it, this place is like a palace,” said manager Greg Burns, of the new Green Diamond Equipment Ltd., facility in Upper Onslow.
The company, which specializes in John Deere farming equipment, celebrated the grand opening of its new, 56,500 square-foot location beside Highway 102 last weekend.
For more than 35 years the John Deere dealership operated out of Lower Onslow as MacLeod Farm Machinery. It was purchased by Green Diamond in 2012.
Operations moved to its current site on Hub Drive in December and the intervening months have been spent putting the finishing touches on the new store.
“Obviously, it’s a sign of progress,” Burns said. And while the “old location served us well,” it was a rented facility that did not meet the growing needs of today’s operations, he said.
The repair shop alone consumes 30,000 sq. ft. of the overall floor space, which Burns said will greatly improve their efficiency in numerous ways.
“We focused on that quite heavily throughout anyway at the old store. But we can have more pieces of repair gear inside ready to be worked on.”
At the Lower Onslow site, for instance, there was a greater limitation on how many pieces of equipment could be worked on at once.
“Whereas right now we have sufficient bay space that I can get everything inside. If we have to work on it the next morning it’s inside, it’s dry versus pulling it in with the morning dew on it or if it’s raining out, that kind of stuff,” he said. “And we have a wash bay connected to our service bay so we can have the equipment clean and ready to be worked on quicker than we could before.”
There is also an overhead crane, boom trucks and other pieces of equipment the shop’s technicians did not have access to before.
“So that makes a big difference,” Burns said.
The extra space also allows for a training area within the shop bay as well as classroom training space on an upper level.
And the increased visibility from being right beside the highway adds yet another benefit to the new location.
“It works in our favour greatly,” Burns said. “I’d say we were destination spot before.”
Now, however, Burns said not a month goes by without a visit from people who have lived here for years who say they didn’t know a John Deere dealership existed in the area.
Burns said he is also proud that the dealership was able to relocate to a new centre while remaining close to its roots.
The new operation has so far resulted in five new jobs to a current total of 30 employees. But Burns said he fully expects that number will increase.
“Once we get ourselves settled into this place we’ll be continuing to grow too,” he said. “I’d like to stress the fact that we were able to stay within the community and all our employees live and work within the community. So, it’s great to be able to grow this big and still be a part of it.”
FAST FACTS
– Established in 2007, Green Diamond Equipment was formed as a joint venture between the P.E.I. Farm Equipment and Planter’s Equipment.
– In 2008, the two partners merged into Green Diamond Equipment.
– In 2012, the company purchased three additional locations and, in 2016, Green Diamond Equipment merged with Reddin Equipment.
– Green Diamond Equipment now has approximately 300 employees across 14 locations throughout the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
