Businesses Embrace Crowds, Tradition at Canfield Fair
CANFIELD, Ohio -- By the end of this Labor Day weekend, Pat Zehentbauer, co-owner of Gause Equipment Inc., Lisbon, says most of her inventory of tractors, farm equipment, lawn and garden tools, and brush mowers is likely to be gone.
That translates to between $300,000 and $400,000 worth of business for the company over the course of the Canfield Fair, a do-not-miss venue for farm equipment dealers, building contractors, home remodelers, carneys and concession operations.
"There are other fairs, but this is by far the one that brings in the people," Zehentbauer says. "This is a great fair. We always have a lot of stuff you can see -- sometimes more than what's at the lot."
The draw is especially good since business at the dealership has skyrocketed since the advent of oil and gas exploration in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
"It is so amazing. It's not like anything we've ever seen," Zehentbauer exclaims.
Many farmers, enriched by lucrative lease bonuses and royalty payments from oil and gas companies exploring in the Utica and Marcellus shale formations, have opted to reinvest a sizeable portion of their wealth into new equipment and tools for their farms.
Demand for large tractors, for example, is so great that it's difficult to secure enough to satisfy the regional market, she says.
"We just can't get anything in," Zehentbauer says, gesturing to several large tractors at the front of the company's exhibit. "Those are all sold, and the owners graciously let us use them for our display."
A single large tractor retails at $90,000, she adds. "They're a lot of money, but the supply is not there."
Equipment manufacturers, stung by the Great Recession and a relatively weak market preceding the downturn, cut production and haven't replenished most of that stock, Zehentbauer observes. "For the last 10 years, demand hasn't been high, so the big companies narrowed what they make."
Other vendors see the fair as a long-standing tradition for themselves and their companies, and there's no better way to market their business in front of hundreds of thousands of people who attend the five-day event each year.
"An awful lot of people come to this fair, and a lot of them are our customers," says Buzz Cooksey, owner of Cooksey's Culligan Water Purifiers in Youngstown. "It's a great place to meet old customers and new customers."
Cooksey's sells water purifiers, water treatment systems and water tanks. On this particularly hot weekend, the business also plans to sell plenty of bottled water.
"I'm third generation, and now my son's in the business," Cooksey reports, adding that his company hasn't missed a day at the fair since 1947. "We don't so much sell stuff here, but we love to talk to people. We would never miss it, partly because of business, partly because of tradition."
Such a tradition extends nearly a century for Agnew's, a lawn and garden equipment dealer based in Boardman.
"We're the oldest exhibitors out here in the fair, for almost 100 years at this spot," says Carol Agnew Tallman. "I'm 71 years old, an I've missed the fair four times in my life."
Agnew says the fair is important because it gives the company a chance to showcase its equipment, as well as its farm toys. "I'm in charge of the toys, sales are extremely good and this is our biggest toy sale of the year."
Agnew's sold farm machinery in the early 20th century and was awarded a spot that was then one of the back lots at the fair. "They didn't want our machines to disturb the horses," Tallman laughs. The company has kept the same spot since, in what is today a much larger event and fairground.
The fair is also the year's largest venue in this area for concessionaires, many whose season begins in the spring and ends in the middle of October.
"I've been coming here for 30 years," says Richard Sanders of Painesville, who owns Sanders French Fries, a mobile lemonade, soda and French fry business. He says business on Thursday evening was relatively light, but he expects the weekend to be extremely busy.
Sanders said he spends his summer hitting most of the major fairs in northeastern Ohio, and the Canfield Fair is considered the Gold Standard of what a county fair should be.
"It's one of the more prestigious fairs," Sanders says. "You've got to put this one on your schedule."
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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