John Deere reducing dealerships

[JDKing]

Well Class do it in UK with few outlets. So do Agrifac. Bateman. Grimme.

From here I can access 7 JD dealers in an hrs drive.

I could get quotes from Ben Burgess, Doubledays, Sharman's, Tuckwells, Farrols.
That in itself is a problem to JD.

When they started in uk they built up the sales by flooding the place with dealers.
Now they have the business they can slim back as kit gets bigger & farms less.
[/QUOTE
Funnily enough there isn’t one JD DEALER within an hour’s drive to us!!

 

[tweedale terrier]

Barclays as a group will be one of the biggest second hand buyers of deeres in the country probably which also keeps s/hand prices up

Probably the biggest buyer of all makes of ag machinery in the uk

 

[Diesel burner]

John Deere Forestry run out of Carlisle. The mechanics can orders parts to certain places through a amazon type arrangement so dont need to go back to Carlisle for them.

From that one deport they send there mechanics all the way down to the south coast and upto the Scottish highlands. Probably requires a very good service manager who can keep track of his mechanics and get the closest one to machines that require fixing.

Brand new depot being built in Perth just now will be a few million invested in there.

 

[Cowabunga]

I’d be suprised if any Deere dealership sold 30 new combines a year or 15 foragers.ive no idear how many combines are sold in uk each year but if there are ten jd dealers selling 30 a piece that’s 300 and that’s excluding claas,new Holland and case and I’d be suprised if there are 300 combines sold new in uk each year.
Nick...

That is the point that many seem to miss. They have very few, if any, that currently hit those targets. The actual point is that they require dealers to grow their area and sales to meet those targets and that means doubling the area they cover and increasing their share of the market in those areas. Some dealers are so way off the target and/or are unwilling/unable to invest into doing so, that regardless of loyalty and dedication to the brand in the past, or their current market share and performance, they are being terminated. About half of them could be terminated if they want businesses to double their existing area.

Loyalty is expected one way but none given the other way. These big corporations are ruthless, which is partly how they have grown so big and survived through thick and thin over the years. JD know that agriculture and their business is in for a tough time in future and they are shaping up to weather it.

 

[Cowabunga]

Sad to see this

suspect it’s all part of the long term plan that most manufacturers have to sell direct to consumers - there really is no need for any dealers / shops etc these days it’s just a hang over from the past pre internet

The future for all retail (not just ag) is physical showrooms and service centres but sales will be a virtual thing ........ maybe a decade away ?

No, they will certainly NOT sell direct. They do not want inventory on their books. Not new. Not used. They transfer the cost and risk of retailing to puppet dealers who manage their own local businesses with their own money.
Even Caterpillar has two dealers covering the globe. Cat do not wish to have liabilities on their own books.

 

[ollie989898]

Surely several of the posts above are indicative of the reliance on and trust farmers place on 'their' local dealer and if these are forced to lose their franchise and sell something else it will be no surprise if the customers walk as well?

 

[Clive]

No, they will certainly NOT sell direct. They do not want inventory on their books. Not new. Not used. They transfer the cost and risk of retailing to puppet dealers who manage their own local businesses with their own money.
Even Caterpillar has two dealers covering the globe. Cat do not wish to have liabilities on their own books.

£10 bet ?

 

[Roger Perry]

Worth remembering also that the likes of John Deere credit and Caterpillar financial are larger than several hundred banks around the globe.
Anything you need on the farm from machinery/fertilizer/seed etc can be financed thru JD and others.

 

[Speedstar]

Worth remembering also that the likes of John Deere credit and Caterpillar financial are larger than several hundred banks around the globe.
Anything you need on the farm from machinery/fertilizer/seed etc can be financed thru JD and others.

That is more of a thing in the states than here in the UK but you are right, John Deere are a global players in lots of market's

 

[jre]

Yes I mean different from sharmans

HRN and Netherton are completely separate businesses. same family, different brothers.

 

[Cowabunga]

£10 bet ?

You're on. When do I collect?

 

[Will 1594]

Barclays as a group will be one of the biggest second hand buyers of deeres in the country probably which also keeps s/hand prices up

David ,they dont call them the jd mafia for nothing .and regards ,sharmans , You could not wish for better folk to deal with ,francis and rodger ,and scott , highly regarded here ,always have time for a chat , and always keen for a deal

 

[Deere Fan]

Yes, i could easily be wrong. His father definitely farmed locally. He could easily have bought some land and sold it for a big margin to a oil company.

Did they ever sort out the belt on that swathwilter you bought from them?

The story goes that Auld Harry got wind of the St Fergus gas terminal coming when he was a mart auctioneer. He managed to buy the land it was to be build on they sold it to terminal owners.

 

[Farma Parma]

As long as people trade in used equipment there will still be dealers.
Manufacturers do not like trading things in.
Not much traded in in the household scene.

Huge Huge Monetary diff between household stuff thats designed for few years use then throw away compared to £100k worth of a 200hp fully loaded Tractor
just as a mere instance here.
Here is another thing white goods IE washing machine, fridges, cookers etc etc cost the same amount of money as they did 10years ago
Farm machinery has ni on doubled in that time.

 

[Corporate_Slave]

No, they will certainly NOT sell direct. They do not want inventory on their books. Not new. Not used. They transfer the cost and risk of retailing to puppet dealers who manage their own local businesses with their own money.
Even Caterpillar has two dealers covering the globe. Cat do not wish to have liabilities on their own books.

I agree It won't work for the higher volumes that tractors are, the only place where it seems to work is the very niche industries, mining, road building equipment etc, but you tend to find these places only keep a very small selection of good trade in's. Most are sent immediately to auctions or sold to specialist dealers/exporters, manufacturers don't want to keep stock, They want to manufacture.

My personal opinion is that farmers read too much into these sales figures and volume numbers that get banded around. These are what I think John Deere consider to be 'long term vision' aka for what you aspire your dealership to be. John Deere want dealerships which are going to aspire to that goal.

I don't know the Sharman's owners but I can only assume that they did not show an appetite to grow the company into the John Deere vision. You can get that feeling from the statement on the Sharman's website, which points out they had met each target and had a bigger market share than national average. This is a perfectly reasonable view that Sharman's took, but John Deere are very brand conscious and want dealers who match this. It appears they had a difference of opinion so they decided to finish it .

 

[Tarw Coch]

I wonder what the future holds for Welshpool where there are two JD dealers, not directly competing head to head but certainly with some overlap, Rea Valley being ag dealers whilst Charlie’s sell the groundcare stuff but that includes Gators and tractors up to and including the 5100 series I think it is.

 

[Cowabunga]

I wonder what the future holds for Welshpool where there are two JD dealers, not directly competing head to head but certainly with some overlap, Rea Valley being ag dealers whilst Charlie’s sell the groundcare stuff but that includes Gators and tractors up to and including the 5100 series I think it is.

Well, Rea Valley apparently were not interested in the groundscare stuff so Charlie’s took it on. They are ideally situated with a very high public footfall for that kind of thing, which RV could never have. The problem could arise if Charlie sells many more units than RV and they decide they would like to sell the whole caboodle. On paper it must look like RV have lost a big percentage of market share and perhaps that is all the young Turks at Deere, not long out of their nappies and full of University learnt retail knowledge about how to run Tesco, care about.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Well, Rea Valley apparently were not interested in the groundscare stuff so Charlie’s took it on. They are ideally situated with a very high public footfall for that kind of thing, which RV could never have. The problem could arise if Charlie sells many more units than RV and they decide they would like to sell the whole caboodle. On paper it must look like RV have lost a big percentage of market share and perhaps that is all the young Turks at Deere, not long out of their nappies and full of University learnt retail knowledge about how to run Tesco, care about.

Yes, I would agree that Charlie’s are better suited to handle the groundcare stuff and to that end it certainly makes sense to have 2 separate dealers but that doesn’t seem to fit in with the JD plan of ever larger dealers. I don’t see Charlie’s as being a threat to RVT who have an area stretching pretty much from the welsh coast to the M1 but you never know, they do seem to be selling more farm machinery now, from Welshpool at least.

 

[Corporate_Slave]

I wonder what the future holds for Welshpool where there are two JD dealers, not directly competing head to head but certainly with some overlap, Rea Valley being ag dealers whilst Charlie’s sell the groundcare stuff but that includes Gators and tractors up to and including the 5100 series I think it is.

Ag and the groundcare divisions are managed separately, I don't believe the groundcare division has the same amount of consolidation as the Ag.

Yes I agree that it does muddy the pools in some area because groundcare dealers can supply tractors up to 125hp. However John Deere groundcare have appointed specialists dealers in predominately ag areas without much fuss.

 

[lou]

Sharmans have sold 4 newJD combines within 3 miles of me taking out the competition over a few of years,which in this day an age is going some.
They really need a full line up of machines including combines which will hopefully tempt me way from JD,.
I fancy trying a Case axial flow combine next harvest time,they are not really on the radar around here due to a lackluster dealer.
They haven't technically been allowed to sell new jcbs' from Grantham due to another dealer in the area.

R C setchfields have lost JCB as seen on fb today.