Implement dealership expands, renovates, and diversifies 

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

Tim Prater stands with a portion of the John Deere equipment located  at the Bryan store.       � Photo by Mindy Poehl

Dec. 22, 2005 - Coufal-Prater Equipment, Ltd., a four-store John Deere Dealership that sells the full line of John Deere equipment, is now in the process of renovating and expanding all four of their Central Texas John Deere dealerships. The dealerships are  located in Temple, Cameron, Bryan and Navasota.

The three Coufal brothers, Ed, Jimmy and Melvin, gave birth to the company in 1974, when they  founded their first store in Temple. In 1988, the Coufal's opened their second equipment store in Cameron. The store in Bryan, which was a separate organization at the time, was opened in 1992, by the Prater's, and the Navasota store was bought in 2001. It wasn't until 2004 that Coufal-Prater merged their family businesses together. 

"The goal of the merger is to share inventory and have more people that are specialized," Tim Prater, owner and general manager of Coufal-Prater Equipment, Ltd,  said. “A person can't know the specifics about everything, so we want to specialize people in sales, parts and service. We want to be able to take care of the farmer, rancher and commercial operator, as well as the lawn and garden business." 

Tom Prater, corporate service manager at all four store locations, is busy at his computer in Bryan. � Photo by Mindy Poehl

Prater, who lives in Bryan, is the son-in-law of Ed Coufal. 

�� "I graduated with a B.S. in Ag Engineering from A&M in 1987," Prater ex-plained, "and I worked for him (Ed Coufal) part time. That's how I became interested in this business."�

�The motto of Coufal-Prater equipment, Ltd, is "quality and integrity at prices you can af-ford." By renovating and expanding their stores, the company will be better fit to fulfill all of their customer's needs.

� "The goal of the projects is to in-crease the products we are able to offer our customers and better meet their needs," Prater said. "Things in this business are changing so quickly and we must change with them to accommodate our customers. We also want to welcome new customers by offering them more than just an equipment dealership; we want to be their friend and business partner."

The Temple location was re-modeled right before the companies merged. The first phase of renovations has been completed on the store in Cameron, with exterior changes as well as larger, more appealing showrooms and new repair service areas. The expansion project in Navasota will include adding an Animal Health division to the agricultural equipment store that will include a full line of Purina Mills feed products.  

"We will triple the size of the showroom floor in Navasota and we are adding the Purina line to cater to people with pets, horses and even cattle," Prater said.

"It will be called Coufal-Prater Country Store and we will sell everything, including clothing and tack. It will help to pull more people in to the store and add more traffic flow."

The John Deere and Purina partnership will be the first of its kind in a series of planned partnerships between the two companies. 

The largest renovation will take place at the company headquarters store in Bryan.

"We don't have enough storage space, office and shop space or showroom space. We've outgrown this building and we want it to feel like more of a shopping experience for our customers," Prater said. "Our showroom will increase from 2,000 feet to 9,000 feet. This store will have the John Deere Place, which is the first of its kind in the United States."

The John Deere Place will include a full circle John Deere encounter for customers and will include all areas of the store, such as parts, repair service, equipment sales and retail services.

"All four stores will also have road service trucks manned by skilled technicians available for field service and repair," Prater said, which means that the service will come to the customer rather than the customer hauling the vehicle into the stores to be serviced. This will cut out a lot of down time for the customer.

�Right now, Prater stays extremely busy between managing all four stores, having meetings, working on the construction of the stores and selling equipment.

� "My main focus is to manage the four stores so we can continue growing; meeting our customers needs and keeping our staff of over 100 employees focused and well trained," Prater said.