Don't worry, you haven't put your clocks so far forward that it's Friday already. We're simply publishing on Thursday this week to make way for the Good Friday bank holiday tomorrow.

The Easter weekend is traditionally where the season truly kicks off, at least for garden machinery dealers. The question is, how much different will this year's one be? Hopefully we're entering into the 4-day period with a bit more certainty than 2020's provided. Back then, a proportion of our readers would not even have been open in any form.

This year, whilst the timings are unfortunately not quite right to allow showrooms to be open, dealers at least know they are able to trade - albeit with restrictions. Also, we hearing just how incredibly busy many of you are right now. In good news for domestic machinery dealers, we're being told that the lockdown trend of homeowners reconnecting with their gardens is showing no signs of abating. 

However, the major problem of course, is that everyone is having to cope with this unprecedented stocking situation. The customer demand appears to be there in droves from what both the press and our readers are saying - it's having the machines in hand to meet that demand where the trouble lies.

We will publish the full results of our stock supply survey that many of you kindly filled out for us last Friday, in the forthcoming issue of Service Dealer magazine - although I will just let you in on one little spoiler today.

To the question 'is your dealership facing issues regarding the availability of stock currently?' a staggering 92% of respondents said that they were.

I'm pretty sure that in all our years of canvassing readers, we have never asked a question that has elicited a response with such an overwhelming majority. It truly is a quite remarkable situation in which we find ourselves this year.

Also it seems fair to say, it is a situation that is being felt fairly equally by dealers across the board. Domestic, commercial, ATV and ag machinery specialists are all feeling the pinch.

We received some fascinating comments from our dealer readers last week, for which we're most grateful as always. We shall be featuring as many of your opinions as space allows next issue.

It appears there are some incredibly tough situations being faced right now. Dealers are having to make tricky calls about pricing structures, perhaps finding new brands to stock, new suppliers of parts and methods to keep both customers and staff happy.

As we keep mentioning, key to helping plan throughout this period is clear, honest and up-to-date communications from suppliers and manufacturers. We're being told though, that some are achieving this much better than others.

How these next few months are negotiated will define 2021. Dealers will need their suppliers coming through for them as best they can - whilst dealers themselves will be relying on their own ability to quickly adapt and react to the prevailing circumstances. Don't forget too, there's the Service Dealer Digital Toolkit available to offer help and practical advice in these uncertain times.

I won't hold you up any further today, so I'll just say all the best for this Easter period. Hopefully when we arrive at the next one, it'll be much more of a traditional season opener! 

We'll be back as normal next Friday.