There's a story involving dealership Rea Valley Tractors leading our news today. It's an interesting tale and one that fits into an ongoing discussion regarding the future of the UK dealer network.

If you look back at Service Dealer's March / April edition from earlier this year, our own Laurence Gale profiled RVT for the magazine. In that feature there were no indications of major changes afoot. Certainly if you glance at those pages, the colours of green and yellow dominate the photos.

However in today's news you can read that the dealership is splitting from the company that has been their longstanding main franchise and, as they put it, are plotting their own destiny.

In a fascinating insight into the ambitions of a major machinery supplier, RVT md Steve Petford is quoted as saying, "In discussions concerning the long-term development of the company, the options presented by our current tractor supplier effectively involved either downsizing or selling the business, scenarios that were emphatically opposed by RVT’s Chairman and main shareholder Simon Clarke, not least because of the impact on jobs."

RVT it seems, were able to stand up to a multinational corporation and find their own way forward, on their own terms.

Dealer rationalisation

You may remember last week, we were discussing the ongoing trend for rationalisation within the UK dealer network.

This conversation arose following a recent spate of dealership merger, buyout and acquisition stories that we had reported on within our news pages - plus through hearing from some supplier representatives who told us how they had seen their list of dealer business contacts noticeably shrink over recent years.

As ever, we were keen to hear the views of our readers on this subject. We wanted to know whether this wave of takeovers is a pattern causing concern amongst single depot businesses?

One dealer's view expressed to us confirmed that it was for them, saying, "This is not good for smaller dealers. It's a real shame. You lose that personal touch."

However, an interesting view came from Keith Christian, director of BAGMA, who reached out to us with a more positive take on the situation.

Keith started by explaining that the trend toward larger, combined dealerships was predicted a long time ago and is nothing new in the evolution of the industry.  "It should be clear," Keith said, "that most of these mergers and acquisitions are in the agricultural machinery sector and not so many in the garden machinery sector."

Keith's key point was that the overall size of the dealer network is not contracting. He said, "It should also be made clear that whilst the number of actual company names maybe reducing, the number of outlets (branches etc) and the people within those organisations remains the same."

He continued, "It is not a case of doom and gloom for the dealer network. It is a change bought about by global trading conditions and economies of scale. There will always be a place and a future for the independent and privately owned dealerships in the UK."

Keith concluded, "Whilst the circumstances surrounding most of the mergers or acquisitions in the UK are driven by a grander corporate plan it should be noted that the dealerships involved are still privately owned, family businesses who have formed the backdrop to the UK dealer network for many years and will do so a long way into the future."

We thank Keith for taking the time to contribute to the conversation and for offering his insight. It is indeed a fair comment that with most of these stories of takeovers that Service Dealer has covered, it is reported that staff and branches of the acquired dealership are retained.

What does seem undeniable though, is that there are fewer unique names dotted around the network. When we spoke to our supplier panel recently, one representative told us that whilst we as consumers used to embrace the notion of using truly independent, 'mom and pop' businesses, the reality is that time is passing. "Just look at the high-street," they said, "people use large companies. You’ve got to be realistic; we all want to deal with companies that will be there in five years’ time."

Their argument was that a future of big dealer chains is unavoidable.

So is this the harsh truth? Are single branch indies done for? Is it an outdated, vaguely romantic notion that there is a place in years to come for one-offs within the UK dealer network? Are the likes of RVT who are able to find ways of maintaining their identity, an increasing rarity?

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.