Caouette and Sons Implements welcomes in St. Paul at grand opening of new shop

Image: Yvon, left, and Marc Caouette, right. Serving the St. Paul and area for over five decades, they say diesel runs in their blood. 

It’s not just a brand new building: it’s an investment in St. Paul for the Caouette family, just as farmers have invested in them for an impressive 55 years.

While the world has changed a lot since 1969, the latest news is that Caouette and Sons Implements celebrated the grand opening of their new shop on the corner of Highway 29 and 881 last Thursday.

St. Paul came out in droves to relish in the day, as the barbeque allowed fellow business owners and farmers to congratulate Yvon and Marc Caouette — father and son team — on the venture, and take a look at the new shop.

“We put an investment in, and we’re hoping that people support us and we’ll be here for a long time to come, and that’s what it boils down to,” Yvon told Lakeland Connect. 

“It’s about good relationships. Some of these people are calving, and they took the time to come here today, and we’re very appreciative of that.” 

About two and a half times bigger than their old shop in the industrial park, the added space is much needed for their tractor service department.

Marc explained that in the past, taking apart a tractor became a game of Tetris to make everything fit, so now operations can flow much more efficiently, particularly as they use their 10 ton crane.

Knowing that reliability is the name of the game, they’re able to handle the increasing size of tractors over the years — but it doesn’t change how they view their customers.

“I think everyone knows that we’re always trying to help out from little farms to big farms. So this kind of shows,” Marc said about the response to their grand opening.

“We have people with a couple cows here, to a lawn, to 10,000 acres. We deal with everybody.” 

‘It’s an exciting day’

Caouette & Sons Implements is an authorized Massey Ferguson, Gehl and Versatile High Horsepower Tractors dealership, with a wide selection of new and pre-owned tractors.

But they also carry mowers, industrial equipment, and tools.

Being in an agricultural community like St. Paul for all these years, their importance and giveback to community is not lost on residents.

“I have to congratulate the Caouette family on taking the commitment and believing in the community,” said County of St. Paul Reeve Glen Ockerman. 

“It’s a big investment, but their family has been supporting agriculture for years, and this just proves to me that it’ll continue for years to come…it’s an exciting day. We just moved the County one notch farther by having them into our community for the long term.”

One of the reasons they’ve had their success is by being local. You don’t have to wait for answers from a head office miles away, and people like being able to stay in their community to get what they need.

It’s an impressive feat 55 years on for this business started by Yvon’s father — rooted through these family bloodlines in St. Paul.

“It’s just a sense of pride that it’s not going to end with me, and same as my father before,” said Yvon.

“It’s in the family, and it’s probably in our blood. I was born into it. He was born into it…there’s diesel in our blood.”