Multifaceted agribusiness expands in Sioux Falls development park with plans for additional growth
- July 8, 2024
An agribusiness with global reach has grown steadily since moving its corporate headquarters to Sioux Falls more than a decade ago – and is far from done expanding in the community.
Worthington Tractor Parts Inc. most recently added a 24,000-square-foot building to its growing campus in the Sioux Falls Development Foundation’s Park VII in northwest Sioux Falls.
The expansion at 5400 N. Annika Ave. supports its U.S. distributorship for Capello of Italy, which is a leading provider of globally innovative header solutions for ag equipment, primarily chopping corn heads since 1965.
“Capello dominates its category in Europe, and we were introduced to it throughout parts deals in Ukraine and around the world,” said Mike Winter, president of Worthington Tractor Parts. “It’s a good fit for many customers because it’s not brand-specific, and we’ve been steadily making farmers aware of the quality of the product as their U.S. distributor.”
The Capello USA training and distribution facility offers extensive warehousing, a full product showroom and final assembly shop. The new location also will host dealer training to provide hands-on education for service technicians. Open to the public, the showroom is available to customers to view Diamant, Quasar and Spartan lines and visit with the Capello USA team.
“We’ll bring in dealers from all over the Midwest at this location,” Winter said. “And we have a training facility to train service techs on the Capello product as they provide support to customers.”
Worthington Tractor Parts dates back to 2012 in Sioux Falls, when it opened the first building and moved its corporate headquarters from Maple Grove, Minnesota.
“It’s an excellent community to live in and operate a business. I don’t regret the decision one bit,” Winter said. “When we moved, it was in conjunction with building the headquarters for our Capello distributorship as well as Parts Express, which is a wholesale distributor of aftermarket new parts for ag equipment.”
Essentially, Worthington Ag Parts, Parts Express and the Capello distributorship combine to offer customers everything from used parts to new corn heads and new or rebuilt aftermarket parts.
The legacy Worthington Ag Parts business will mark its 60th anniversary this year and is an independent distributor of non-OEM, aftermarket new, and used replacement agriculture parts. It has six locations nationwide in addition to three in Australia. The business sells directly to farmers and has seen a strong increase through e-commerce, Winter said.
“We don’t operate a location in Sioux Falls because we can’t have salvage equipment on the lot, so Worthington, Minnesota, is the closest location, and then Sioux Falls is our corporate headquarters and warehouse facility for Parts Express and Capello parts, where about 50 people support our multiple business entities here,” he said.
“We’re always looking for good people, and it’s not necessary to have an ag background. We have sales positions open for Capello and Parts Express as well as warehouse roles and administrative purchasing positions.”
Parts Express is based out of Sioux Falls and serves about 4,000 dealers nationwide, in addition to four warehouses in Australia and a warehouse in Germany that serves multiple countries, including Ukraine, where “it has seen a drop because of the war, but they’re still farming,” Winter said.
In the past 12 years, Parts Express and Worthington Ag Parts have brought guests to Sioux Falls from Argentina, Ukraine, Australia, Italy, Russia, China, Taiwan, Turkey, Israel, India, Germany, Denmark and Kazakhstan.
“Their first impression is that everyone loves the city of Sioux Falls,” Winter said.
Dean Dziedzic, vice president of economic development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, has worked with Worthington Tractor Parts since its original expansion more than a decade ago.
“They were a catalyst for development in Park VII, starting out with one 6-acre site and then buying additional land for expansion,” he said. “They offer an excellent variety of positions and treat employees well with very competitive wages and benefits. They’ve just been a great tenant for this development park, and we’re excited to see them positioned for continued growth in Sioux Falls.”
Going forward in the short term, “it’s going to be a good harvest for us,” Winter said. “Crops are in the ground, there’s been good rain, and we expect the second half of the year will be stronger than the first in our sector. I’m optimistic in how we go forward.”
Ultimately, expect to see Worthington Tractor Parts and its associated businesses expand even further into on-site assembly, he said.
“I predict we’ll build again to the north in about five years,” Winter said.
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