Page 26 • August 21, 2021 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT GUIDE
Illinois Equipment Distributors Celebrates 70 Years as By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Industry associations exist to benefit association members — and the pooled energy of its members is what makes an association work. This synergy has worked for Illinois Equipment Distributors for 70 years. The challenge now is maintaining the mutually beneficial relationship in a changing heavy equipment industry. A couple of generations of dealer executives have retired since IED was founded, but Howell Tractor and Equipment has been there from the beginning. The company changed names last year when it was acquired by Michigan-based Alta Equipment. Howell Tractor and Equipment (now Alta Equipment) is a state-line dealership, with full-service facilities in Peru, Ill., and Gary, Ind. The Gary facility is the only Indiana dealership represented by IED. Howell Tractor and Equipment was one of a handful of equipment distributors that came together in 1951 to form what then was called Illinois Construction Equipment Distributors. The association’s business address has changed several times since then, moving across the Chicago metro area, but its focus hasn’t wavered. Michael Morton, Alta’s regional director of product support, said the purpose always has been “to advance and strengthen our industry.” During the pandemic, Morton — who is treasurer of IED — said the association emerged as “the eyes and ears of the industry. People wanted to know what was going on, what the new COVID regulations were, what they needed to do to keep their workplaces safe and so on.” The ability to flex its mission and adapt to changing business and industry conditions is key to IED’s continued viability. It will determine if the association has another 70 years in it.
(L-R) are Kevin Ridens of Ditch Witch Midwest/1ST Choice Equipment; Jim McCann of McCann Industries; Tom Smith of National Lift Truck; Tom Stern of West Side Tractor Sales (retired); Bob Jones of SES Equipment Inc.; and Joe McKeon of Construction Equipment Guide.
** Earl K. Harbaugh called Illinois Equipment Distributors an “entrepreneurial organization.” Harbaugh knows about entrepreneurship. He has started several successful companies and is CEO of Ditch Witch Midwest, which he founded in 1970. A longtime IED member, Harbaugh said forming of the organization was about bonding dealers. “Because we had to get things done with legislators, financial institutions we worked with and manufacturers. That was the whole thrust. That and working together,” he said. Any entrepreneurial venture involves initiative and risk-taking. For IED members, the risk for members involves working with competitors. It can be a little unnerving to socialize with someone you darned well know is eager to win a bigger share of the equipment market at your expense. Yet it ultimately is mutually beneficial.
Outgoing 2009 IED president, Rick Dahl (L) of Metrolift Inc., receives a plaque from incoming 2010 IED president, Jim Cox of Casey Equipment.
Jim Cox is president of another long-term IED member, Casey Equipment. He said he can’t speak to the thinking of his father, Don Cox, who co-founded the company, except to say his father and others supported IED in the early days to get to know other area equipment distributors. “Today, the IED relationships are still the same,” he said. “Most members have a kind of mutual respect for one another and an adversarial feeling at the same time. We enjoy the social part of it and then go compete the next morning.” Bob Jones attributes his IED work with developing what he calls “business friends.” Jones is vice president of sales at SES, a West Chicago equipment distributor that opened its doors in 1968. “I would never have developed relationships with competing dealers without IED,” said Jones. “You just don’t. But serving together on the IED board, you develop clos-
Rolf Helland (R) of Illinois Truck & Equipment accepts the President’s Award from Mark Harbaugh of Ditch Witch Midwest.
er relationships. As we each pursue business in the industry, issues come up that affect us all.” Still, there is awareness that members are competitors. “Though you know each other, you still do battle. I bid some stuff today in competition with others. But we don’t bring any of that to IED,” said Jones. “It is all very civil. It would be different if we were attending a meeting where we had customers, but we are all distributors and at the same level. That’s a different dynamic. So, IED is a place you can develop some business friends.” McCann Industries has been involved with IED for about 40 years, after company founder Richard J. McCann brought his company aboard. His son, Jim McCann, is company president today, presiding over nine locations in the Chicago metro area. He recalls that his father was interested in networking and sharing information, “in particular the growth of the rental industry. We were getting into construction rental and IED was a platform for us to share ideas with others. “It’s an important association for us and we’re proud to be active members,” McCann said. “What makes IED different than some other chapters is there is a level of responsibility that IED feels to the industry. We have all worked well together and each done our share of giving back. That’s not the case in some chapters. We are pretty friendly with each other and carry a torch to ensure the mission of IED is carried on.” Adam Salinas of Illinois Truck and Equipment — current IED vice president — also cites “networking with industry peers in a noncompetitive manner” as a major benefit of IED membership. “None of us are disclosing trade secrets,” said Salinas. “We’re all in the same business and we have things to learn from one another.”
Robert Sloan (L) of C.E. Rentals presents a plaque to Barry Heinrichs of Burris Equipment Company.
