2014 has been a very satisfying year for our industry on many fronts, principally because of the weather, an improving economy and business confidence.

For myself and Steve, this year marked a change of direction as production of the magazine moved into the new and capable hands of The Ad Plain at Wallingford.

It was strange at first, having ‘done our own thing’ for over 25 years, but the results are in and we can look back on a year that far exceeded our expectations – and more importantly created a solid base for 2015 and beyond.

So my particular thanks to Duncan and Emma Murray-Clarke for their faith in the magazine’s potential, to Alison who has taken over the sales role, Phil for his production and design skills, Rob who designed and looks after the website and Teresa who oversees all the database, circulation and admin stuff.

We have all been on something of a learning curve during 2014, but we get to the end of our first full year with much accomplished and with a magazine of which we are intensely proud.

One of the major changes for Service Dealer in 2014 is that it reverted from a paid subscription magazine to being circulated free-of-charge to bona-fide sales and service dealers in the grass, groundscare and farm machinery sector. So particular thanks to all our advertisers for their magnificent support during the year – and for already fully committing in numbers to 2015.

The weekly newsletter goes from strength to strength and at a near 50% ‘open-rate’, far overstrips benchmark norms for e-mail communications.

As you will read in this issue, our year-end is tinged with sadness following the sudden death this week of our colleague Mike Beardall. Mike was a lovely man, a good friend of the magazine, and a journalist and photographer of great talent. We will miss him greatly.

So as we take a break for a couple of weeks, may we wish you a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year from all in the Service Dealer team.

Chris