There’s no time like harvest for agricultural equipment dealer staff to wish for a simpler life. Looking enviously across at counterparts in the car or truck trade, many must wonder whether things wouldn’t be more straightforward if just one supplier provided all of the dealership’s key machines, backed by a consistent set of systems, procedures and standards of support, whether that’s tech/service back-up, parts supply or even the loaning of demo machines. Of course, agricultural equipment dealerships provide a much wider and more diverse range of products than, say, a line of vans through rigid body trucks to articulated tractor units that a lorry dealership might supply, but the point stands.

With many of the tractor makers who dominate the way most dealers do things broadening their ranges through takeovers and alliances, moving into new product areas and offering a fuller line of equipment, it would appear that, in future, more dealerships will be supplying more products from their main franchise.

Manufacturers have been here before, during the period from the post-war decades right through to the 1980s. Back then, much of this was about supplying almost every tool a farmer needed in order to keep them loyal to both brand and dealership, but many manufacturers gradually withdrew from specialist product lines, whether they were involved in manufacturing them or simply marketing them under their own name and livery, as specialist makers and their specialist knowledge trumped the marketing and financial might of multinationals attempting to become ‘jacks of all trades’.

Now, many are returning to supplying a fuller line, driven not just by that desire to make them and their dealers a one-stop shop for a farm business’s key machinery, but also by the additional factor of compatibility of operating, control and communication systems. ISOBUS may have negated some of this, but there remains a strong selling point in similarity of controls to aid operator and owner familiarity.

But is it necessarily a good thing for dealers? And how much pressure are they coming under to push the new additions to the main franchise’s product line over the machinery from a ‘short line’ supplier with whom they may have a sound relationship and strong customer backing? As farming operations become larger and buyers fewer, the move is an understandable one, but it does carry a risk of alienating dealers and customers who are seeking choice and other benefits of a competitive market.

It would be interesting to hear - anonymously, understandably - dealers’ views on whether they feel they are coming under pressure from their main franchise to reduce the number of lines they sell, and what the good and bad points are to this. And both short- and long-line manufacturers are welcome to pass on their thoughts about how their decisions to branch out or stay tractor-only are helping both them and their businesses.

Could we see dealers diverging into main brand tractor and full-line businesses and, on the other hand, specialist implement suppliers? Is the latter a viable business model? Do dealerships need to sell tractors to survive and/or prosper?

Email Service Dealer editor Steve Gibbs or share your thoughts in the comments section below. In a future issue of the magazine, it’s something we’ll take a closer look at.

Editor Steve Gibbs is away this week