This week, myself and Service Dealer owner Duncan Murray-Clarke embarked on a road trip, to visit a handful of our dealer readers.
It's an endeavour we undertake each year, to allow us to get around a different area of the country to catch up with dealers of different machinery specialisms. It allows us to get a flavour of their company and how business is going. In the past for example we've travelled around different areas of Scotland, Wales and the south coast. This week it was what I, as a southerner, would roughly describe as The North.
We visited, in order, Cutting Edge Garden Machinery in Bromsgrove; Major Owen in Penrhyndeudraeth, north Wales; GGM Group in Colne, Lancashire; Balmers GM in Burnley, and Ripon Farm Services in North Yorkshire.
Firstly, Duncan and I would like to pass on our huge thanks to all the dealers and their staff who we met this week - all of whom offered us a fabulously kind welcome and were delightfully open and frank in talking to us about their businesses.
I'll expand in some greater detail on what was discussed in the upcoming edition of Service Dealer magazine, and there shall be some video interview content forthcoming, but for today I wanted to reflect on the snapshot that we took of how these dealerships are viewing the current market situation. Visiting these dealerships who between them covered the gamut of domestic, professional and agricultural machinery, was a fabulous opportunity to take a barometer reading of what challenges and opportunities they saw 2025 offering.
With a couple of quite simple questions we discovered some common concerns that were preoccupying several businesses; some similar thoughts on where growth could be achieved this year; and of course some unique takes on both, dependent on individual business ambitions and direction. All answers were revealing, highlighting the pressures that small businesses in our sector are facing, but also how with acumen and entrepreneurship tricky times are being navigated with success.
Of course there are a great many issues of concern that dealers are having to content with this season. Areas such as the recent budget, rising costs and a general uncertainty in the market were all cited - but I'll expand more on those in the next issue of the magazine when I'll recount what the dealers were most concerned might inhibit the running of their dealership to its maximum potential in 2025?
But for now, to keep matters more upbeat heading into the weekend, I'll just stick to the positive! The first question we asked, was -
What do you see as a real opportunity for your dealership in 2025?
Steve & Sarah Law
Steve and Sarah Law at Cutting Edge told us that for their dealership, they believed that robotic mowing solutions would present a real opportunity for growth this year. With the Segway units that they represent, they can see a real consumer shift from lawn tractors to these machines. "People are coming to us for help and advice," said Sarah, "and with the rapid change from boundary wires to satellite control, customers are increasingly interested in this technology".
Another potential opportunity for growth for Cutting Edge, we were told, was the expansion of their hire department. They said this was especially the case with their commercial B-to-B customers, who may not be spending on wholegoods, but who are willing to pay for hire of large kit.
Andy, Josh & Luke Jones
Major Owen spoke about how having exclusivity of premium ranges in their local area would be important to their business this year. Andy Jones said, "Specialising in premium brands pulls us away from the mass market - which is both a dying area and a race to the bottom. We specialise in quality machinery and offer the back-up to go alongside that. We also have that vital mix of groundscare, domestic and construction machinery; meaning any can take up the slack if the others were to dip. We also make sure our offerings cater for all customers' budgets."
Major Owen were also looking to robotics to show further growth amongst their customer base.
Thomas & Chris Gibson
GGM are enthused about the opportunities that their recently announced new service centre in Yorkshire will bring this year. Chris Gibson said, "In challenging times, the fact that we're doing this creates a positive buzz within the business. It focuses minds and generates excitement. It really is big news for us."
Chris and his son Thomas also told us they have great anticipation for a new parts webshop they are launching. The intention is to get all their parts info up onto a new site, in order to make the process of ordering quicker and easier for customers - especially for those out in the field.
Jo Balmer & Andrew Meeks
At Balmers GM we spoke to Jo Balmer and Andrew Meeks, who told us that you must look at the season as an opportunity or else you are half beaten already. Jo told us, "I'm confident that whatever this year throws at us, we'll find a way to successfully navigate through it." In terms of where they were seeing potential growth it was in alternative fuel powered products and, once again, robotics. Andrew said they were especially excited about these developments in the golfing sector. "With club managers now much more involved in the machinery purchasing decisions," said Andrew, "we are seeing a real shift towards battery tools. Robotics meanwhile means, with the labour crisis, skilled greenkeepers can be redeployed away from laborious grass cutting."
Balmers also told us that as the supply chain is in a much healthier state than it has been in recent years, they can get back to demo-ing and selling tools, rather than customers having to order machinery 12 months in advance.
Phil Gregg
Phil Gregg at Ripon, was also enthusiastic regarding the golfing and professional turfcare sector. The dealership has recently had a big win with the Home of English Golf converting their entire machinery fleet to green and yellow, but Phil told us he feels they can push on their pro-turf side to even greater successes. He told us, "We've established a great commercial grasscare machinery team. I can genuinely feel their energy and a real enthusiasm. There's a lot to be said for having that camaraderie in a team, so I feel there's a good time to be had in turf this year."
Phil also believed that the agricultural sales, which have been notoriously slow for everyone lately, will eventually have to pick up again because it's simply been too long for farmers not to reinvest in their machinery options.
Like I say, in the next issue of the magazine as well as some further insight into their businesses, I shall expand on areas of concern that were voiced by everyone.
Once again I would just like to offer our thanks to all the dealers we spent time with this week for both their hospitality and their candour.
I would also like encourage any of our dealer readers, to please let us know in the comments below just what opportunities (or concerns) you see for your businesses this season.
