CLIMMAR is a European organisation for dealers, distributors and repairers in the agricultural and garden machinery sector.

There are 16 national association members, which collectively represent over 19,000 dealers and distributors across Europe. Sadly, Ireland is not one of them. I hope that Ireland will become a member soon. Looking on their website, CLIMMAR is involved in many activities, which include lobbying for EU legislation and regulation; their own new CLIMMAR index, which monitors current and expected turnover of machinery companies throughout the 16 member countries; their annual Congress (the 2019 event took place last week in Thun, Switzerland).

CLIMMAR’s Report on Activities 2018 – 2019 makes for interesting reading. Two items caught my attention. The first was their Dealer Satisfaction Index (DSI). This index began in 2011 and it investigates how its members - European dealers and distributors, evaluate their relationships with tractor manufacturers. The aim of the DSI survey is to improve relationships between tractor dealers, distributors manufacturers (in the agricultural and horticultural sector) and the end users. Eleven countries currently participate and use the same questionnaire. The maximum score is 18 points for each topic surveyed. Ten tractor manufacturers were surveyed and here are some of the results.

                                        2018       2017
Financing offers:             11.5        11.1
Theft protection:              8.9          8.3
Profitability contribution: 12.1        11.9
Overall brand average:  12.7         12.6

CLIMMAR report that they are happy with the results but will be encouraging tractor suppliers to improve their performance further as the average scores are still far from the maximum of 18 points. It was noted also that the willingness of tractor suppliers to improve on their weak points scored 11.6 in 2018 compared to 11.8 in 2017, a decrease of 0.2 points.

The second item that interested me on the CLIMMAR Report was the importance of recruitment, retention, development and job promotion. They have a draft position paper, which aims to identify and address the challenges concerning Recruitment, Retention and Development of mechanics and technicians. This is a real concern, especially here in Ireland. The draft highlights the need for the industry to step up its general recruitment campaigns and provide a European wide template for the recruitment of new people to the industry.

Also mentioned in the draft is the need to address retention of qualified people. Areas such as career development, salaries and opportunities should be looked at in an effort to encourage staff to remain working with their employer.

CLIMMAR encourage structured training programmes such as apprenticeships, further education, higher education and manufacturer’s training programmes. They also state that the dealer networks and trade associations need to engage more in what is being offered by manufacturers, and should encourage manufacturers to be involved in a more generic industry programme for the recruitment and retention of people.

Dealers and distributors in Ireland need to encourage new people to join the industry, which include mechanics, sales people and office staff. Ireland is practically in full employment and there are many careers that young people can choose to go into. Dealers need to offer reasonable salaries and job benefits if they want to attract the best staff on board.

You can view the entire CLIMMAR report by clicking here.