Business View Magazine | December 2019

87 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 Vermeer MIDWEST Equipped to do more A legacy business founded on long hours, hard work, and a culture of caring, Vermeer Midwest has earned its fine reputation as the go-to, authorized dealer of Vermeer equipment in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and eastern Missouri. The company has grown from a single location in Eureka, Illinois to a full-service dealership with 10 locations, specializing in new and used equipment sales and rentals, readily-available parts, and impeccable customer service. As the slogan says, Vermeer Midwest is “equipped to do more”– inspired to do whatever it takes to maximize customers’ productivity and profit. Steve Kool, CEO of Vermeer Midwest, tells how it all began “back on the farm.” “My Dad, Junior Kool, started at Vermeer Corp. in 1958. He had a farm background and Gary Vermeer, besides doing manufacturing, was also a farmer. He’d asked Dad to help him farm after work, nights and weekends, so Dad got to know Gary, first-hand, and Gary understood what kind of worker my dad was and the knowledge he had. Things just kind of went from there. Dad started as clean-up man behind a welder, then he became a welder. In 1965, he took our family to California, for a year, to start a dealership for Gary. When we moved back, there were still a lot of salesmen on the road, so he did that through the remainder of the ‘60s. When Vermeer started a dealership in Peller, Iowa, Dad AT A GLANCE VERMEER MIDWEST WHAT: Full-service Vermeer equipment dealership WHERE: Headquarters in Goodfield, Illinois WEBSITE: www.vermeermidwest.com