Service Dealer this week convened the first of an ongoing series of informal industry think tank sessions, conducted remotely via Zoom, featuring senior representatives of industry trade bodies, manufacturers, suppliers and business support services.

Service Dealer's think tank session with industry leaders on Zoom this Wednesday

The intention of the sessions is to talk through what the current thinking and mood is amongst the industry and to consider what the latest governmental guidelines and advice mean for dealers across the country.

Wednesday's session was attended by senior representatives of trade bodies the AEA and BAGMA, as well as key people from the following companies:

• Briggs & Stratton
• Catalyst Computer Systems
• FGM Claymore
• Hayter / Toro
• Ibcos
• Iseki
• Kramp
• Kress
• Kubota
• Price Turfcare
• Stiga
• STIHL

Chaired by Service Dealer owner, Duncan Murray-Clarke, the first session which took place on Wednesday morning (March 25th), took the framework of considering what the advice issued by government this week meant for dealers and their technician staff of agricultural machinery, commercial groundscare machinery and domestic garden machinery.

Duncan said after the session, "We are in the independent position that we can link the manufacturers and service providers together at this challenging time. We consider these Zoom meetings, which we shall be running weekly for the foreseeable future, as a most valuable exercise. With them we hope to be able to offer a little more clarity for our dealer readers during what is a most stressful and confusing time.

"We were most grateful to be joined by some very senior and respected members of our industry this week, all of whom 'left their weapons at the door' so to speak and were most open with their advice and help.

"The intention by all, was to discuss through what individual company's measures had been in reaction to this outbreak, as well as to talk about their understanding of what the official rules meant for their dealers.

"I would like to thank everyone who took the time this week to contribute. We look forward to holding our next meeting this coming Wednesday and if there are any particular questions or comments from dealers please do use the comment box below."

You can read what the AEA's advice from the meeting was here and BAGMA's advice here.

You can find summations of advice from the session given for agricultural machinery dealers here, for commercial groundscare dealers here and for domestic garden machinery dealers here.