Hot on the heels of LAMMA last week, from Tuesday it's the professional turf maintenance side of the industry's turn to kick off the year's schedule of events.

BIGGA's BTME show will be taking place in Harrogate again, back in its traditional January slot for the first time in a couple of Covid-effected years. Myself and Laurence Gale, editor of our sister title TurfPro, alongside our colleagues Duncan and Nikki, will be attending the show. It'll be great to say hello to any of our dealer readers who make the trip.

It'll be fascinating actually, to see just how the busy the show is overall. Will being back in January boost figures from last year's delayed edition that took place in March? At that show, the halls felt somewhat sparse on occasion, with some stand-holders expressing disappointment with the footfall they saw across the three days.

Hopefully next week the buzz will return to Harrogate, for what has traditionally been a vibrant, social show. Certainly LAMMA saw the crowds turn out to the NEC - so perhaps there is an appetite amongst end-users this January, to check out new machinery options despite the much-discussed cost-of-living crisis.

As Laurence said in his TurfPro blog this week, for the golf greenkeepers that the show is principally aimed at, it's always been a "must attend" event, that offers a great opportunity to see what's new for the coming year. And having that inspiration regarding what new developments are in the offing and could help the business, is vital for both end-users and dealers alike.

New avenues

Speaking of which, have you been making decisions about any new avenues to pursue in your dealership this year? I asked one dealer recently where they felt potential growth might come from for their business in 2023 and they were thinking along the lines of expanding more into a sector they already knew.

They told me, "We see our growth coming from more business (both sales and repairs) within the professional user and contractor areas. Our pro customers want a good, reliable and trustworthy business they can use time after time and that is exactly what we have built our business on. These customers need their equipment to be reliable and up to the job from which they earn their living. Therefore, us providing that level of service and mix of products, is where we are putting our efforts, making this an area of ongoing success and growth."

So delving more deeply into an established area is certainly one area that dealers will be looking towards in order to expand profits this year.

As has been discussed in the mag and our Dealer Digital Toolkits previously though, perhaps others might be looking to diversify more widely from what has been traditionally stocked? For dealers with an interest in this sort of thing, there's interesting news today regarding the CAA granting a particular type of agricultural drone operational authorisation to spray in the UK.

It's an interesting question to ponder, whether our readers think drones will become an area that we will see machinery dealers begin to specialise in? To be fair, this particular drone importer mentioned today has told us at the moment they only have two re-sellers which is probably enough for them right now - but they do go on to say " . .in due course, as the market grows, we may well require more."

Would this kind of new technology interest your dealership? If the CAA has granted this first authorisation, it seems a safe bet that more will follow. A dealer who I know who is interested in this field sees potential for drone use in many areas other than farming too. Golf course or woodland owners for example, could further enhance their uses for various tasks.

So might a machinery dealership end up the natural home for an outdoor-use tool such as a drone? And other new tech too, such as those precision weed-killing robots? Will the dealership of the future have dedicated floorspace, and indeed dedicated staff with specialist knowledge, devoted to this type of future-tech?

What do you think? Do you have any grand plans along these diversification lines? Let us know in the comments below.