November 11, 2016 CapitalPress.com 15 Ag Chains Plus offers solutions for customers By GEOFF PARKS For the Capital Press Eric Fery and Cindy Octo- bre answer all questions about their company’s farm equip- ment belts, chains, bushings, collars, couplers and the like in the same way: “Come to us for solutions!” The brother-and-sister tandem has turned their six- year-old company, Ag Chains Plus, from a small local sup- plier business housed in a tiny space into an independent, bursting-at-the-seams busi- ness on the lookout for further expansion. All just four years after moving into the Stayton industrial area. Ag Chains Plus provides belting and lacing products for the food industry, lumber mills, aggregate firms and farm equipment. It also sells power trans- mission products to the agricultural industry, roll- er chains, sprockets, belts, sheaves, bearings, electric motors — “things to make harvesters move, planters run and the like,” said Fery, 50. Geoff Parks/For the Capital Press Owners Eric Fery and his sister, Cindy Octobre, in the warehouse at Ag Chains Plus in Stayton, Ore. “We grew up in this busi- ness,” Octobre said of their lives prior to starting Ag Chains Plus. “Eric’s lived around here his whole life and we both grew up on a farm (row crops) and we’ve been in this industry for years.” They make their money, she said, when they are both on the road doing sales and deliveries, each with their own territories, clientele and business circuits around the Willamette Valley. The company makes special deliveries and of- fers consulting services for winter maintenance, busi- ness expansion and custom design. Business has grown con- sistently since the year it was started, Octobre said. “There was a niche, a hole, a void that needed to be filled in this industry and we are very dedicated to the people that we have served over the years,” Fery said, explaining their beginnings at Ag Chains Plus. Fery is also vice chairman of the Willamette Valley Ag Expo. He said the Expo is much like his and his sister’s com- pany in that it is “all about the farmer and getting the up-to- date technology and compo- nents in front of the farmer so they have the opportunity to go, ‘I never knew about that.’” “When you come to the Expo, we’re going to show you everything that’s out there, from drones, to GPS tracking, to the latest com- bine swather and put it right out there in front of you,” he said. Ag Chains Plus will be at Booth 220 in the Wil- lamette Events Center at the Willamette Valley Ag Expo. LEE’S DIESEL & MOBILE REPAIR Rickreall, OR • 866-390-9146 Pierce Pivot & Linear Irrigation Systems High Quality Parts & Service - Valley, Reinke & Zimmatic Linear, Corners, Pivots Underground Guidance is our Specialty Submersible, Line-Shaft Turbine & Diesel Pumps, Variable Speed Drives for Pumps & Motors, Trenching for PVC Mainline, Drainage & Electric, Direct Bury Power Cable Sales & Installation PVC Mainline Pipe & Fittings (all types), Generator Sets, Deutz & Isuzu Diesel Engines & Parts, Diesel Power conversions for Turbine Pumps Cell/Text 541-936-9146 www.leesdiesel.com WVAG16-4/#7 WVAG16-4/#7