GARDEN TRACTOR

L & P Supply also carries a full line of oils, lubricants, chains, filters and other parts for many lawn and garden equipment brands.

L & P Supply has long been known for carrying a large selection of reconditioned, used equipment, and for servicing what it sells. The Lokensgards said the construction of a new showroom allowed their busy repair shop to expand into the former showroom area.

The brothers see the expansion as a much-needed step for the business. The main 50- by 80-foot showroom gives them much more room to display their line of John Deere and Simplicity lawn tractors and snowthrowers.

"It was just going to be a one- or two-year thing for me, then I was going to move on," Brian said of his decision to join the business in 1978. "But that never happened. I enjoyed it."

"This was going to be kind of a retirement for him," Brad said of the move to South Grade Road. "I saw it growing so I thought I'd give it a try, too."

The Lokensgards' father, Orion, founded the business in 1965 as an implement dealership located along State Highway 7 East. He moved the business to its current location and refocused on smaller lawn and garden equipment.

"We alway's had a long-range goal of building on that fill brought in," said Brad Lokensgard, who joined the family business in 1981.

For years, Brian and Brad Lokensgard had been taking in free fill from construction around Hutchinson.  They finally put the expanded plateau west of their lawn and garden equipment dealership to good use by building a 4,320-square-foot addition to L & P Supply Co.