Firstly today, the good news.

As you may have already seen, the date for this year's Service Dealer Conference & Awards has been confirmed by the organising team. Taking place once again at the Stratford-Upon-Avon Crown Plaza, the date for your diary is Thursday November 28th.

I am aware that the crack team at TAP are well advanced in their preparations for the event dedicated to the dealer network, with tons of fantastic content already taking shape. I've been told that I am allowed to say there will be an announcement on here in two weeks time, revealing what the theme for this year's Conference will be!

Next week it's Good Friday, so we'll be pausing for an Easter break (as I know many dealerships do these days too) - and then on Friday April 5th we'll be back with the big unveiling! The excitement is most definitely building!

More closures

And now, unfortunately, the bad news.

Following on from last week's story regarding Suffolk Agri closing their doors for the final time, we have learnt of another dealership hitting hard times, this time north of the border, with Balgownie entering administration.

At this stage it appears that Balgownie are in a slightly different position to Suffolk Agri in that they are undertaking limited trading under the control of the Joint Administrators, with Ifor Williams trailers continuing to be supplied. 24 people have lost their jobs already though according to reports, making for another undeniably sad situation.

Without getting into specifics of individual cases and particular circumstances, with these two stories on consecutive weeks - and I'll be honest, we're hearing quite strong rumours about a third dealership too - it does give rise to an inevitable question:

Are these events just a coincidence of timing or are there deeper, underlying industry issues that are coming to a head this year, affecting certain dealerships' ability to trade effectively?

There is a school of thought that says due to the trend across recent years, particularly in the agricultural machinery sector, of the major manufacturers consolidating their dealer networks, into fewer, larger groups, it leaves smaller dealers who find themselves without a major franchise to represent, vulnerable.

The argument is presented that many farmers are not interested in purchasing a lesser-known brand of tractor from their local dealer who might have found themselves without a big name to sell following the continuing merry-go-round of manufacturer and dealer realignments.

I've had people who know way more about these sorts of things than I do, tell me that regardless of any loyalty felt towards a local dealer, plenty of big arable farms just wouldn't be interested in changing the model of tractor they use on their land to a smaller marque, simply because their closest supplier has had their franchise removed. They will take their business up the road.

Equally though, I've had industry experts tell me that these changes to the overall tapestry of the dealer network should not be to blame for individual businesses going under. Quite the opposite in fact. There is belief that the mergers into so-called 'super-dealers' has prevented some businesses from going broke.

One experienced individual told me, "There is certainly a consolidation trend, but I don’t think it leads to a shrinking industry -  just a changing one."

Their belief was that, sadly, some businesses will always find themselves struggling due to their financial commitments, shrinking margins and a poor return on investment. Cash-flow issues essentially. 

Also of course, a distinction must be made between the pressures on agricultural machinery dealers and those on garden and commercial turfcare machinery dealers. These markets have separate and unique customer bases, and their desires and constraints in any given season must be taken into consideration.

But what do you, our dealer readers at the sharp end think?

Are these events that we've reported on these past couple of weeks part of the natural churn of the sector, inevitably occurring each season? Or is there something else in the air this spring?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or drop me a line.