Ritchie Bros. acquired Kramer Auctions, a Canadian agricultural auction company with customer relationships in central Canada. This acquisition is expected to strengthen Ritchie Bros.’ penetration of Canada’s agricultural sector and add key talent to its Canadian Ag sales and operations team.

“We are delighted to welcome the Kramer team to the Ritchie Bros. family. For more than six decades Kramer Auctions has developed strong, trusted farming relationships and deep community roots across the Canadian prairies, which has positioned the business as a leading agricultural auctioneer in Western Canada. Their family values, intense customer focus and innovative approach to delivering exceptional on-the-farm auctions are shared by the Ritchie Bros. team,” said Ravi Saligram, CEO of Ritchie Bros. “We are truly excited about the value we can create by combining our expertise and global reach for customers in farming communities across Canada.”

Operating for more than 65 years, Kramer Auctions has established a market position in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as an agricultural auctioneer, offering both on-the-farm and on site live auctions for customers selling equipment, livestock and real-estate in the agricultural sector. The business operates approximately 75 on-the-farm auctions, four on site auctions, and eight livestock (Bison) auctions each year, and sold more than C$60 million ($44.48 million) of agricultural equipment, real-estate and other assets in the last year. Like Ritchie Bros. Auctioneer auctions, Kramer Auction sales are conducted on an unreserved basis.

The four key leaders of Kramer Auctions – Neil Kramer, Kim Kramer, Brendan Kramer and Michael Higgs — have all joined Ritchie Bros. and will continue overseeing auctions in the Prairie provinces under the Kramer Auctions brand. All full-time employees of Kramer Auctions have also been offered continued employment with Kramer Auctions, through Ritchie Bros.

“My wife Monica and I, our family, and the Somerville family are all very excited to be joining the Ritchie Bros. team,” said Kramer, president of Kramer Auctions. “We’ve respected the growth and interest Ritchie Bros. has developed in the agricultural space over the last 15 years, and believe we can offer our customers even greater value by blending our expertise of seamless farm auctions, with Ritchie Bros.’ leading technology and reach of international bidders. I look forward to continuing our work, on behalf of all our valued customers, across Canadian farming communities.”

This acquisition follows the purchase of IronPlanet by Ritchie Bros. in August.