AFGRI Equipment Australia has announced it has formally entered into an agreement with John Nicoletti to acquire his Ag Implements business.
AFGRI currently operates from 14 branches across Western Australia with its head office in South Guildford.
This acquisition adds another six locations to its operation.
AFGRI said with the constant improvements in technology, additional experts in different fields were required and growing the business would allow them to invest more resources into these areas.
The company said the expansion would also allow them to better cater to the needs of their customers for premium new and used equipment, competitive parts and reliable servicing.
AFGRI, a private company started more than 90 years ago in South Africa, is a leading agricultural services and processing company.
In 2004, AFGRI Holdings made its first investment in Australia with the acquisition of T & H Walton Stores.
After the subsequent change in name to AFGRI Equipment Pty Ltd in 2013, AFGRI continued its expansion with the acquisitions of Jolly & Sons in 2015, Greenline Ag in 2016 and Ratten & Slater in 2017.
On Monday AFGRI said FIRB, with inputs from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, did not have any objections to the proposed acquisition.
AFGRI operations director Gollie Coetzee said the management team would implement the best practices of both businesses to ensure they were ready to supply the market with premium products and service excellence.
He emphasised that an important aspect of this acquisition was making the transition for its new employees and customers as smooth and comfortable as possible.
"The main message for this acquisition is to ensure our new employees and customers experience an easy and similar approach to what they are used to," Mr Coetzee said.
"We had opportunities to talk to Ag Implements staff and they will have opportunities to put their concerns forward in the next couple of weeks.
"Employees are the backbone of any business and we want to transfer our strong employee culture which is based on our values of integrity, accountability, teamwork, passion and service excellence."
Mr Coetzee said he anticipates a great relationship moving forward.
"With our mission and values being very similar to Ag Implements, we believe everything will continue to run smoothly and we are looking forward to what the future holds," he said.
"We will be looking to increase our number of technicians at these new locations and expand our AFGRI Apprentice Academy with a further 35 apprentices next year.
"We will continue working with the local schools to make sure we can keep potential future employees in the rural areas.
"AFGRI understands the importance and difficulties of employing staff in rural areas, but we look forward to increasing our staffing capacity to better meet our customers' needs."
AFGRI commercial director Wessel Oosthuizen said the acquisition would further expand the company's economies of scale and would benefit their customers in the long run.
"Economies of scale allows us better efficiencies within the group, such as better whole goods and parts stocking capabilities, expanding on best practices and the increase in knowledge through the sharing of experience and information through the group, to name a few," Mr Oosthuizen said.
"One such example is our team of four technical advisers of which are all experienced technicians and experts in their fields.
"This includes precision ag, tractors, harvesters, seeding equipment and construction equipment.
"They are in place to make sure our staff are trained to optimise equipment and attend to any technical issues the various product groups may experience."
Mr Oosthuizen said the acquisition was an exciting time for both AFGRI Equipment and Ag Implements.
"We are looking forward to this next chapter for AFGRI and wish to put our potential new staff and customers at ease as we transition through this period," he said.
