NEW S&S AG SUPPLY HEADQUARTERS ON THE RISE
JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER
“This has been in our veins for a long time.”
That comment from Ethan Schmeichel comes amidst exponential growth of the Schmeichel family business, S&S Ag Supply LLC, and is in reference to his dad and grandfather, Steve and Melvin, selling seed as far back as the 1950s.
“It’s been fun to see progression,” says Ethan, who started S&S Ag Supply with his dad in April 2006 and is today watching a brand-new building rise from what had been Schmeichel farmland on the east side of Highway 81. “This is exciting because this is on family land; and I hope that it starts a fire in other businesses who might want to come and to help grow Freeman.”
All of this is in reference to the 70×300 building that has quickly risen across the highway from the Freeman Country Inn and will serve as headquarters for S&S Ag Supply — a business that started in seed and has since expanded to include chemical and fertilizer, lawn mowers and grills and precision planting products.
When the building is completed, it will mark a move for the service side of S&S Ag Supply off the Schmeichel family farm. The new headquarters will include an office, smaller heated area and plenty of cold storage that will feature a large showroom for products the business offers.
Ethan is hopeful it will also attract new employees as the business continues to expand.
“Our goal is to gain employees and give them a better place to work, and it needed to happen to expand and to grow our business,” he said. “We just have too much going on between the farm operation on one side and the business on the other. This will help us separate those two things.”
The S&S Ag Supply operation includes Steve and Ethan, Ethan’s sister Paula, and two other employees — including Terry Waterman, who started in a management position there in February. Ethan says they are hopeful the new location will allow them to expand their workforce by five or six people.
Ethan says this has been in the works for five years, but the wet year of 2019 impacted those plans back considerably.
“That was not a good time to be in the ag business on the seed, chemical and fertilizer side of things,” he said. “That set us back several years.”
Ethan Lumber is the primary contractor for the project and framework began Monday, Sept. 11. By the end of the day Tuesday all the poles had been set and work on the rafters began — and it’s gone quickly since.
Interior work will likely slow things down, but Ethan is hopeful they will be able to get the space set up and ready to use by the end of November.
“There are a lot of little things that you don’t think about that will need to fall into place,” he said.
Regardless of when the new space is turn-key ready, Ethan says the Schmeichel family is excited to continue to grow their business and continue the legacy established by Ethan’s grandfather three generations ago.
“We just keep adding stuff as we go,” he says, “and if there’s something that people are looking for, we’re open to ideas from our current and future customers.”
And the Schmeichels couldn’t be happier to be doing it all in Freeman.
“We’re deeply rooted in this community and I think people trust us,” he said. “We’re never going to be the big guys, but my dad always says, the one thing we’re going to have to do is give the best service we possibly can. We can beat them knowing that we’re the guys using the products that we’re selling — we’re the test dummies — and we are going to give them the best possible service we can.”
The new headquarters for S&S Ag Supply is located south of land owned by the Freeman Community Development Corporation that was purchased from the Schmeichel family to be used for businesses that might be looking to locate here.
And Carol J. Eisenbeis, the marketing and development director with the city of Freeman, said that holds promise.
“We are continuously in conversations with various entities that are very interested in it,” she said. “There are just a lot of moving pieces right now, but we are hopeful.”
