Buck & Knobby Celebrates 75 Years of Growth

Buck & Knobby Equipment is a Midwestern company that has enjoyed organic growth during all of its 75 years — the kind of growth that characterizes, say, an oak tree.

That is, Buck & Knobby always has been opportunistic, rooting itself in whatever field of equipment showed promise at any given moment. It always has been innovative, sometimes strengthening itself by leaning into economic winds. And it has produced strong branches that give its customers even more for their money.

The fruits of this perennial top-performing company are loyal customers, who trust that Buck & Knobby always will be what it always has been — resourceful, innovative and there for them when they need it.

“Looking ahead, I don’t see anything that would preclude the company from continued success” said Ray Cordrey, Buck & Knobby President. In other words, it’s business as usual at 75, with the equipment company moving on toward a hundred years of service. Some oaks, after all, live for centuries.

Founders of the company were Melvin Cole and Lloyd Nolfo, who grew up together in rural Michigan and somewhere along the way acquired the nicknames of Buck (Cole) and Knobby (Nolfo). They each survived World War II military and civilian service and, in 1948, started a business together in Toledo, Ohio.

It was a combination lawn mower store and a gasoline station. Cole was a natural mechanic and Nolfo an enthusiastic salesman. Nolfo was pretty handy with tools himself and could create a tight bead with a welder. The partners’ combination of talents and entrepreneurial spirit was enough for them to survive the usual start-up challenges of robbing Peter to pay Paul and growing a fledgling business one day at a time.

In 1972, Cole retired. A year later, Nolfo relocated the bythen established store, crossing the Ohio-Michigan state line to property in Ottawa Lake, Mich. Today, several buildings house different divisions there on 100 continued on page 4 acres.

When Buck & Knobby began to focus on construction equipment in the 1960s, one of the first lines it represented was a skid steer being manufactured in Minnesota by Owatonna Manufacturing. Decades later, the nimble “Mustang” machine still is a mainstay of the company’s brands lineup, though it has worn different labels along the way. Most recently, the Manitou group consolidated the skid steer/compact track loader into its Gehl product lines.

“The Gehl RT165 and RT215 CTLs are taking off. Customers really like those models,” said Tim Kitzmiller, sales manager. “The 165 is fast and well-balanced with plenty of power. Gehl’s joystick pilot controls make the machines easy to operate.”

Other construction machinery brands offered in 2023 by Buck & Knobby include Hyundai and Yanmar. Which is to say the company represents a broad spectrum of powered machinery from large (Hyundai) to compact (Yanmar and Manitou/Gehl).

Kitzmiller describes the new Hyundai wheel loaders, like the HL940A, as “outstanding.” They feature a new Cummins A-Series diesel engine and larger, quieter cabs. Another product in increasing demand is Hyundai’s HX145 116-hp hydraulic excavator.

“Around here, the population of that machine is growing.”

Kitzmiller and sales representative, Jeff Wente, are why.

Yanmar’s compact machines sell steadily for two reasons, according to Kitzmiller: the performance of the machinery and the support of the dealership after the sale.

“Around here, our customers have learned that Yanmar is the best,” he said. “Their products are getting better and better. With Yanmar, the name precedes itself and we have done a good job of establishing that name. We have a pretty good reputation ourselves.”

Service Manager Brian Pirolli is a fan of Yanmar machinery.

“The mini-excavators are very reliable pieces of equipment. All the big companies seem to have them. Contractors might have fifty or sixty different pieces of equipment of all brands, but they all have a Yanmar mini-excavator.”

In 2016, Buck & Knobby was looking for another manufacturer to fill a gap in its equipment line. It succeeded in acquiring the right to represent JCB, a line of machinery with a significant reputation for innovative engineering. Knobby Nolfo was attracted to the British manufacturer because he identified with the entrepreneurial achievements of the founder of JCB, Joseph C. Bamford.

Unfortunately, Nolfo passed away before completion of due diligence that led to the JCB dealer agreement, said Gerry Maibach, business manager. But negotiations continued. In March 2017, Buck & Knobby’s new stand-alone JCB dealership held its grand opening … back across the Michigan state line at 9127 Airport Highway, Holland, Ohio, in the northwest part of the state. The full-service facility has earned multiple JCB dealer sales and service awards.

The dealership offers the full range of JCB construction equipment, from a full line of compact equipment to telehandlers, rough terrain forklifts and the one-of-a-kind Teleskid to heavy line wheel loaders and excavators and of course, the backhoe loader, of which JCB invented the concept. One of every two backhoes working in the world today is JCB-branded.

In January 2023, the JCB product offering at the Holland facility expanded to include the manufacturer’s full agriculture line.

“The JCB Agricultural line is an important addition to our business,” said Maibach.

Agri business is a big part of the economy in northwest Ohio and JCB isn’t new to agricultural equipment.

JCB has been producing farm machinery since 1945, when Joseph Cyril Bamford built his first farm trailer. JCB always understood that when it comes to agricultural machinery, only the very greatest levels of performance and productivity will do. That’s why the company always believed in developing specialized farm machinery — agricultural telehandlers were introduced in 1977; agricultural wheel loaders in 1983; and Fastrac tractors in 1991. The result of more than 25 years of innovation, continued on page 6 from page 4 the current range is the most productive, most versatile, most comfortable and safest series of tractors on the market.

“We are pleased to represent JCB Agriculture product line in our served markets,” said Maibach.

Buck & Knobby Equipment became an extremely diverse source of machinery. The founders may not have started out with the vision of offering an expansive array of machinery and tools, but the variety of top-of-the-line products represented by Buck & Knobby in 2023 is just short of staggering.

The Michigan dealership offers a broad selection of lawn and garden equipment for residential and commercial customers. They are (take a deep breath): Toro Dingo compact utility loaders, trenchers, stump-grinders, vibratory plows and material handling buggies; Bobcat commercial zero-radius mowers; Grasshopper front-mount, mid-mount and stand-on mowers; Scag commercial and residential mowers and blowers; and Stihl chainsaws and trimmers.

In addition, customers are offered an assortment of Honda power equipment, including generators and tillers. Those prod- ucts are sold and rented from a separate building because the equipment caters to a different customer base.

Somewhere in that mix of specialized equipment is a mower or compact machine perfect for just about any task in yard, garden or pasture. However, if a tool or smallpowered machine is needed beyond that, Buck & Knobby offers yet another equipment option — the Tool Depot.

The Tool Depot idea was embraced by Nolfo after he was approached by an employee, Lester Bacon. Bacon had a career background in rental trade work offering a variety of specialized tools, including sewer and water construction and maintenance machinery, trench shoring materials and personal protection equipment.

The concept behind the Tool Depot idea was simple: Customers already were coming to Buck & Knobby for heavy construction equipment, so why not provide the hand tools and auxiliary supplies they also would need on any typical job site?

“Knobby thought it was a great idea and looked for the opportune time to build a facility to accommodate the business,” Bacon recalled, “but he passed away before plans were completed.” continued on page 10

The company’s board of directors moved ahead with the expansion and opened the stand-alone facility in April 2016. Bacon manages the Tool Depot division.

It’s stocked with more than 800 kinds of tools and supplies for sale and rent. These include asphalt and concrete finishing equipment and saw blades; laser positioning devices and traffic control signage; safety equipment and pumps; and more. High volume rentals include Snorkel or Haulotte man lifts.

Hydraulic Excavator Thumbs

Excavator Demolition Grapples

All attachments available for on time delivery!

Stump Pullers

Excavator Thumbs

Excavator Grapples

Excavator Wood Shears

Loader Rakes with Top Clamp

Buckets

Attachments

Model

Air compressor

Breaker CAL 550B / 650

Breaker CAL 750

Breaker CAL 850 /HDB40 / 50

Breaker CAL 1000 / SF

Breaker CAL 1200 / HB90

Breaker SF 1500

Breaker CAL 2200

Breaker CAL 3200

Bucket Small / Road plate

Bucket Large / Concrete bucket

Compactor HC 10/12 / the beak

Compactor HC15 20/SF TPC2K

Compactor HC30

Compactor HC40

Compaction Wheel - Pad

Coupler Mount - Auger

Forklift Basket

Forks - Backhoe

Forks - Loader/Jibb

Frost Ripper Small + Point

Frost Ripper Large+ Point

Light Tower / 8’ loader forks

60” Forestry head

72” Drum mower

Flail Mower -130/BC60/42”

Power Rake – Magnet

Rollover Box /Tilt / Helac

Trench Box

Sheeps Foot Roller / Drag

TR3 / Road plates

Slit Seeder/10’ Brush Cutter

Grapple / Clam Bucket

Stone Box – 3 YD / Hopper

Stone Box – 5 YD

Stone Box – 7