PRESS RELEASE                                                                                                 Contact:
For Immediate Release                                                                                           Alan Fabrizius
June 15, 2005                                                                                                        Carrico Implement                                                                                                                                                                    4820 Vine
                                                                                                                              Hays, KS 67601

  Deere Crossing
    As seen in the Hays Daily News, reporter Joseph Galante

   A move across the street from its current facility will double the size of Carrico Implement—the local John Deere dealer—by next spring.  “We’ve outgrown our current facility,” said Alan Fabrizius, general manager of Carrico Implement, 4820 Vine.
   The news comes after the company closed on a deal to purchase 15 acres of land north of Wal-Mart.   Currently, the company sits on seven acres of land and operates out of a 22,000 sq ft building.  It plans to start construction on a 40,000 sq ft facility this summer.  “It’ll double our lot size and building,” Fabrizius said.  The 80 acres of undeveloped land north of Wal-Mart on US Hwy 183 have been a hotbed of activity for the past nine months as two major developer—one representing Lowe’s Home Improvement—announced plans to buy it but then backed out.
   The company planned to move ever since it first purchased Central Prairie Implement Inc. in 2002 and renamed it Carrico Implement.  City road construction cutting into the property hastened that move, Fabrizius said.  “We moved here three years ago and we’ve grown ever since,” Fabrizius said.
   The company has 30 employees.  By the end of the first year in its new facility, it plans to increase that number to 38.  “Ultimately, there’ll be a few more, but growth takes time,”  Fabrizius said.  The company plans to expand its parts inventory in the new facility,  It also hopes to continue to rely on its current stocked level of farm machinery for growth in addition to seasonal hot items, such as the global positioning system-guided steering that took off this year.   “That’s been a real growth area this year and it appears as though it’s going to continue on,”  Fabrizius said.