Messick Equipment Holds Open House at New, Spacious Mount Joy, Pa., Facility

Thu May 05, 2022 - Northeast Edition #10
CEG

Messick Equipment holds an open house at each of its five locations. Something different this year, however, was its brand-new facility in Mount Joy, Pa.

Consisting of 213,000 sq. ft. and sitting on 28 acres, located just 8 mi. from the previous corporate headquarters and flagship store in Elizabethtown, Pa., the new building contains two entire floors to make the most use of the footprint.

"Our move really started in early 2017, after years of growth, with the realization that we needed to make some long-term decisions to address our space constraints," said Neil Messick. "After exploring various options, in 2018, we decided to purchase this 28-acre lot and move our entire business. This addressed some of our existing concerns such as equipment storage, parts storage, equipment display area and parking."

The construction phase of the project from groundbreaking to moving in was completed in only 11 months, during some of the most difficult circumstances in the building industry.

"We broke ground in January of 2021 and started doing business at our new location on December 17, 2021," Messick said. "In a year where supply issues were commonplace, our builder, Scenic Ridge Construction, and subcontractors did a fabulous job getting the building completed on schedule."

The unofficial move started in December with a "tractor parade" where members of the community all pitched in to move more than 100 pieces of towable equipment.

An entire week of January was set aside to debut the new location to the public. Group tours ran all day to show the thousands of attendees every corner of the building, including room set aside for the milestones and accomplishments that housed old pictures and flyers from the history of the Messick dealerships.

Carefully planned and thoroughly executed, the attendees were shown every part of the operation — rental department, parts department with 16 counters, the entire service department boasting of 48 bays and 18 service trucks and ending back in the showroom.

"One of our goals was to provide customers access to all of our departments from the same showroom," Messick said. "At our previous store, parts and sales was at one end of the building and service at the other end. In this building, we have a service lobby with service writers and our service managers have offices directly behind them."

The showroom is five times the size of the previous home and has 18 separate sales offices, which are available for the needs of every customer, no matter the size and scope of the equipment and project.

"Our new building is over 200,000 sq. ft and features a much larger showroom to display equipment inside, a service lobby that opens into the showroom and a parts bin area which can accommodate three levels," said Messick. "We also created two office areas for lease, one of which is leased to Weaver Insurance."

Messick's has always had a huge amount of inventory and that has only increased over the years. Having additional storage space for parts, as well as room for growth, was a priority in the new building. Last year, the company stored more than 300 skids in other buildings because of space constraints. In the new location, Messick's has more than tripled the number of parts bins on each floor, with currently two floors and the ability to add a third if needed. Also located on the second floor is an area for office staff, a lunchroom and several training rooms for future use with customers and factory representatives to work with employees.

The new location also includes a wash bay complete with catwalk to reach the top of larger equipment, a service library that contains hundreds of technical manuals, and a tank farm to hold bulk lubricants.

"We provide lubricants to a large number of customers. This area is where we store the bulk lubricants and fill totes, drums and buckets. We have storage capacity for over 30,000 gallons of lubricants."

In the center of the shop is a tool room, locker room, welding room and clean room. It also is the area for the tire changer, heavy duty parts cleaners and hydraulic presses.

The turn out from the public — longtime customers and friends — was amazing to see, Messick said.

"Each day started with a served breakfast and lunch was also provided. Training seminars throughout the week, including question and answer sessions, ran on a provided schedule for those interested in learning different parts of the industry. From factory representatives and product knowledge, celebrity outdoorsman, tech support and farming and construction training on procedures and operations, there was not a topic not covered for those interested. The entire staff of over 200 employees were excited and welcoming as they were made available."

Messick Equipment covers a variety of products from major manufacturers, for customers ranging from homeowners to agriculture to large construction companies. More than 250 brands of equipment are represented at the facility, with Kubota and New Holland the staples of the construction side of the business. Also offered is Krone, Land Pride, Woods, Bush Hog, Virnig Attachments, Alamo Industrial, AUSA Telehandlers, Artillian Attachments, Stihl, Bradco and many more.

Messick's has seen exponential growth over the past 70 years and also has established locations throughout Pennsylvania in Abbottstown, Halifax, Carlisle and Aspers. Now, with the third generation involved with the day-to-day operations, Messick's has set itself up for the future with what should be the final move. CEG