Orscheln Farm and Home Archives

Tractor Supply: it’s business as usual for them and Orscheln; focus is on regulatory approval

February 19, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

A company that’s acquired Moberly-based Orscheln Farm and Home says it’s business as usual for now.

Moberly-based Orscheln operates 61 stores across rural Missouri, including one in northeast Missouri’s Mexico (graphic courtesy of Orscheln Facebook page)

Tennessee-based Tractor Supply Company has purchased Moberly-based Orscheln in an all-cash transaction for $297 million.

Orscheln’s headquarters and distribution center are located in Moberly, and Orscheln operates 61 stores across rural Missouri. The store locations include Moberly, Mexico, Marshall, Cameron, Nevada, Sikeston and Sullivan. Tractor Supply has 27 Missouri store locations.

A Tractor Supply spokeswoman tells Missourinet that it’s business as usual right now for those stores and that no other plans have been announced at this time. The spokeswoman says Tractor Supply’s focus is now on regulatory approval.

Tractor Supply’s website describes the company as the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the nation.

Barry Orscheln, the longtime chairman and CEO at Orscheln Farm and Home, is well-known in Moberly and across rural Missouri. He’s issued a statement, saying the future is bright.

“For more than 60 years, my family, our Orscheln Farm and Home employees and I have been committed to serving the needs of rural communities across the Midwest. I am very proud of all that we have accomplished over this time. I am confident that with Tractor Supply, our stores will be well-positioned to continue Orscheln’s tradition of taking care of our customers and communities for the next phase of growth,” Orscheln’s statement reads.

Tractor Supply’s press release says they intend to fund the acquisition through existing cash on hand.

Parson emphasizes safety and expanded COVID-19 testing, during stops at two mid-Missouri businesses

May 8, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s governor is praising employees and customers at two Jefferson City businesses, for taking the COVID-19 threat seriously.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson toured the Orscheln Farm and Home store in Jefferson City on May 7, 2020 (photo from Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth)

Governor Mike Parson visited HyVee and Orscheln Farm and Home on Thursday morning, meeting with managers and employees about the state’s re-opening.

“You see the screens, the barriers that are put up between the cashiers and the customers,” Parson says. “You know, the availability of the sanitizers there.”

The governor also praises the HyVee grocery store for its senior shopping hours of 6-8 a.m, as well as social distancing markers at checkout lanes.

After stopping at HyVee, the governor and a few staffers traveled a few miles away to the Orscheln store on Missouri Boulevard. It’s a newly-remodeled store, which sells items like farm supplies, livestock feed, lawn and garden equipment, farm toys, tools and sporting goods.

The president of Moberly-based Orscheln, Marc Johnson, drove to Jefferson City to join Parson at the event. Johnson tells Missourinet safety is his top priority, for employees and customers.

“I think our customers are understanding that they have to keep the social distancing and they’re self-regulating, if you will,” he says.

Orscheln operates 165 stores in 11 states, including 45 stores across Missouri. Its corporate office and distribution center are in Moberly, which is north of Columbia.

Parson also spent ten minutes at Orscheln, answering questions from Capitol reporters.

He says the state continues to try to do more coronavirus testing, emphasizing that expanding the testing is one of his top priorities. The governor notes it’s one of the four essential pillars of the “Show Me Strong Recovery Plan.”

“We need to do a much better job of stockpiling to be able to do tests, and with all the new things, the Abbott equipment and everything that’s coming out, you’re going to see a much better job of that,” says Parson.

The governor says the state now has the capability of performing about 50,000 tests each week.

He praises the response from the state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to what’s happened at Triumph Foods in northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph, and says DHSS will be in St. Louis soon for a larger random sampling of about five hundred residents.