Nate Golla and his father, Gary Golla, announced this week that they’re selling their 74-year-old family business, the Luverne Farm Store.
The feed mill side of the business has been purchased by Pro Partners LLC, a group of local investors who will use the mill to support their hog production.
The lawn care, grounds maintenance and rental equipment part of the Farm Store business has been purchased by Luverne Lawn Care, LLC, a group of local owners who will operate the business out of their own property in town.
The Farm Store buildings and property on South Highway 75 are for sale.
The Gollas said Monday that the business and services of the Farm Store will remain in the community; it just won’t be known as the Farm Store anymore.
“What we do is being transferred to other people,” Gary said.
As of Jan. 1, Pro Partners LLC took over the feed mill and shop area (the building where pancake days were hosted), and current Farm Store feed customers will need to buy their products elsewhere.
Pro Partners retained two of the Farm Store’s current employees, Ardell Van Wettering and Brandon Boeve. Cody Lanoue, a former employee, was hired back to work in the feed mill.
Nate said the Farm Store sold the feed mill business because of the recent retractions in the local hog industry.
Without the feed business, he said he made the difficult decision to also sell the lawn care and grounds maintenance business.
“We truly love what we do,” he said.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have some unbelievable customers and have enjoyed so much working in the community and the area at large. It was very difficult to come to a decision that it was time to let that go.”
The owners of Luverne Lawn Care, LLC, are Nick and Brittany (Steensma) Weidert and Ross Steensma and Mira Uithoven (who are marrying this summer).
Nate said the two young couples will be good for the business and good for Luverne.
“We’re very excited because we have some young people who are going to take it over,” Nate said.
“They have similar thoughts on providing high quality service, using high quality products, doing a great job and really working on their customer service.”
He said he will be available to the new owners to help make sure the services to customers continue seamlessly this summer.
Mira’s grandfather, Greg Uithoven, a 40-year Farm Store employee, will also mentor the new owners during the transition.
Gary credited Uithoven and many other lifelong employees for the Farm Store’s decades of success.
“We’ve had a lot of employees who were with us for 20- or 30-plus years, and that’s remarkable,” Gary said.
“We believed that people who worked with us are family. And we tried to treat them like they were family.”
On Monday, Nate and Gary Golla said the Farm Store transitions are a good news story, even though it marks the end of a Golla business era in Luverne.
“We feel like we’ve been honored to have the customers we had and the families that we have gotten to know through all these years,” Gary said.
Nate said he’s grateful for the customers, employees and the community at large.
“It’s been truly an honor to be in business here, and we couldn’t have done it this long without the support of other businesses in town, all of our neighbors, all of those people who helped make us what we were,” he said.
“It’s really been a joy and an honor to serve this area for 74 years.”
Editor’s note: The Star Herald will feature the Luverne Farm Store in the Feb. 25 Spring Ag Edition with an in-depth look at the history of the 74-year business and its impact on the community.
That edition will also carry more information about the new owners and their future plans.