Yoder & Frey, the architects of the now world-famous Winter sale in Kissimmee Florida, announced the expansion of the team with the appointment of Mike Thurston as senior vice president for the United States and Jeff Schatz as sales manager covering Florida and the eastern seaboard
As part of the continued expansion of the Yoder & Frey business and brand, Thurston will concentrate on expanding the business across the country. He has a background in auctions and finance, funding large assets in the construction and machinery sector.
Having achieved many personal goals in the industry, Thurston was seeking a new challenge.
"I had always known of Yoder & Frey, as over 50 years ago they pretty much put the modern-day parade and ramp style auction on the map," he said. "I had always worked around them in the industry and then my brother joined the company. Following a chance meeting with Jonnie Keys five years ago, as his business, Euro Auctions, acquired Yoder & Frey, they were always on my radar. Jonnie and I kept in touch and then in late 2022 we had a conversation and here I am.
"Euro Auctions is still a family business, run by the ‘Keys' brothers from Northern Ireland. It is Europe's number one and has an enviable global reputation. I was always impressed with the Keys family, and the world class auction business that have built in Europe and beyond.
"With sites in Northern Ireland, England, Spain, Germany, the Middle East and Australia, the brothers now want to accelerate the development of the business in the U.S. through the Yoder & Frey brand, and that's what I have been brought on board to do.
"Yoder & Frey as part of the global Euro Auctions family, the businesses fosters the same values that I have had all my working life. Take care of the customer, take care of the teams, attract the best people, and the business will take care of itself. We are going to drive the Yoder & Frey brand, and whilst we are a U.S. company, based in the U.S., we are part of an amazing global business which is successful, financially secure and probably the largest wholly privately owned auction house in the world. We're going to build on the brand and drive if across the U.S., from coast to coast."
Jeff Schatz
Schatz, another heavy hitter, joins the team with Thurston, as part of the current expansion plans. Schatz joins from an OEM, where he was director of dealer development and responsible for building the dealership network in the United States.
Schatz said, "I have been working with auctions for my entire career. Placing our product in key auctions across the U.S., building awareness to our brand, through curiosity in our product and capitalizing on those interaction to have prospective dealership conversations. My previous role, in a family owned and manged business had taken me as far as I could go and I wanted more.
"Yoder & Frey has great potential for development, and I want to be part of that process. As a company built on family values, the business is part of a global brand that is relatively unknown in the U.S., however, Euro Auctions are one of the most surprising global organisation that I have had the pleasure to work with and the U.S. market knows very little about.
"Leading with the Yoder & Frey brand, with the backing of Euro Auctions, I shall be working to build brand awareness, looking after our customer base, whilst communicating with the market the exciting things happening in the business. I have the same ethos as Mike, which is customer focused and I shall be focusing on developing new business relationships with dealers."
Schatz is Florida based, with a right to roam, and will be developing new client business relationships.
For more information, visit www.yoderandfrey.com.
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