WE ARE ALMOST OUT OF THE WOODS
Hopefully towards end of lockdown
by Service Dealer Ireland Editor, Alan Mahon
 
Alan Mahon

I hope you are all coping well during this lockdown and that you and your families, friends and customers are staying safe from Covid-19.

 

We are, hopefully, on the last week or so of the lockdown. By the time the next edition of Service Dealer Ireland comes to you we should be back to Level 3 restrictions or even better. The days of opening for business, allowing customers to browse around our showrooms freely may not be too far away. It all depends on the numbers and how we behave ourselves.

 

It was good news to hear of two possible successful vaccines being announced from Pfizer and Moderna with over 90% and 94% respective success rates achieved in their trials. However, I must say I am always dubious when companies report these results. I would rather hear the news come from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If all is correct and everything goes to plan these vaccines may be available to everyone by the start or middle of next year. We will keep our fingers crossed. If this does come true our machinery demonstrations will return, our agricultural shows will be open to the throngs of people (though this might be a bit optimistic on my part) and our seminars and conferences will resume once again. Wouldn’t it be great? Time will tell.

 

It was encouraging to hear from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) that tractor registrations increased last October compared to October 2019. Covid-19 didn’t seem to adversly impact tractor sales in 2020. Only two tractors less were registered between January – October 2020 than the same period in 2019. However, I would be interested to see similar statistics shown for Irish garden and sportsturf equipment. Taken from nine member countries, The European Agricultural Machinery Association’s (CEMA) Business Barometer survey for November 2020 shows that lawn, garden and municipal equipment have not come out of the negative zone since the beginning of the year. You can read more on the CSO figures in this edition of Service Dealer Ireland.

 

Staying on the subject of statistics, the Grounds Management Association (GMA) have issued results of their surveys regarding the SALTEX exhibition. One survey was sent to every visitor – past and present, while the other was sent to every exhibitor that had signed-up to the 2020 event. It makes very interesting reading which you can also read about in this edition.

 

With all the talk about the lockdown and Covid -19, Brexit seems to be getting less media coverage and yet this is going to have far wider implications on our business than the coronavirus ever did. We can recover from the lockdown but whatever deal is agreed (or not) will affect us more than any virus outbreak. The 31st of December is just over five weeks away and so far a deal has not yet been finalised.

 

What is especially of concern for our sector is how will the supply chain of spare parts coming from the UK affect us? Will it take longer for items to arrive? Will they be more expensive because of possible tariffs? What will the impact of exporting new equipment to the UK be? What about Northern Ireland? These are just some of the questions that, right now, we don’t have the answers to. There is still a long way to go before we do.

 

Take care and remain safe.

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In this issue
EDITOR'S BLOG
WE ARE ALMOST OUT OF THE WOODS
NEWS
131 TRACTORS REGISTERED FOR FIRST TIME IN OCTOBER
SALTEX SAY SURVEY ILLUSTRATES APPETITE FOR INDOORS SHOW
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