| Smithfield
Implement - 89 years old and still going strong
By Katie Ashton
December 8, 2004 | SMITHFIELD -- There
is one store in Smithfield that is continuing to withstand
the changes of the business world.
Ralph M. Roylance, owner of Smithfield Implement Co.,
Inc., said the store has been around for 89 years and
his father purchased it shortly after he returned from
WWI. The store mainly sold John Deere farming supplies,
but now carries hardware, agriculture supplies and some
clothing, he said.
Roylance began working for his father in 1950, after
he graduated from Utah State University in business
and administration. About 10 years after that, Roylance
took over the ownership of the store.
"We've been the most prominent business [in Smithfield],"
he said.
Smithfield Implement has been a big draw until Cantwell's
opened up, Roylance said, which has changed their business
in the last 15 years. However, there is still loyalty
to the store, he said, among the older generations.
The store attracts people valley-wide, he said, which
prompted him to open a store in Tremonton.
"I've stayed busy every day of my life," said Roylance
to the work it takes to run a small business. "If it
weren't for that, I would be a professional ski bum."
Smithfield Implement has been affected by the larger
"box stores," he said, but "we're holding our own."
The larger stores have drawn many of the younger generations
away from the store, Roylance said, but there still
remains a large loyalty to the 89 year-old business.
The business has been in the family since the 1920s,
Roylance said, and his son, Bart, is currently the manager
of the store.
"I wouldn't have been here otherwise," said Roylance
to the idea of non-family ownership.
Ryan Talbot, a USU student majoring in mechanical
engineering, said he shops at Smithfield Implement because
"they tend to carry things you don't find in the big
box stores." The customer service is generally better,
Talbot said, because they are willing to work with their
customers rather than pointing them in the general direction
of an item.
The store ships to 500 different factories and has
two or three warehouses.
NW
MK |
