May I start this first Weekly Update of 2025 by wishing all our loyal readers a Happy New Year.

I do hope everyone managed to have a relaxing and peaceful break. I'm sure we'll all be grateful for it once we get fully into the swing of this forthcoming season. With the weather that appears to be heading everyone's way, I'm sure dealerships up and down the country will soon be feeling the knock-on effects via the demands from agricultural and professional customers.

When we look back, as we do today with our annual round-up of our top ten most read stories of last year, I do hope that 2025 brings some more positivity across the dealer sector. It's always a fascinating activity for me personally, when I research and compile this article each January, but I must say, in all my years of putting this together for our readers, I've never had such a downbeat collection of stories make the final ranking!

When you read through it today, a common theme quickly becomes apparent. Last year we saw far too many of our dealer colleagues close the doors to their businesses for the final time. We discussed the whys and the hows plenty throughout 2024. I'm not sure that we ever reached any definite conclusions as to what caused the spate we saw? Theories were posited, argued, dismissed and argued some more. It being the natural churn of a season may have been the consensus - but was there something more worrying, underlying everything?

And I say caused like it's in the past, but we know that dealerships have still been closing recently and presumably will continue to do so as we navigate though this year.

But let's hope that the frequency of such stories slows down and we see stability increase throughout the dealer sector during 2025. I know the tractor sales figures we were hearing in December were far from ideal, but the two autumn professional machinery trade shows generated upbeat buzz and the Service Dealer Conference & Awards certainly saw a raft of positivity amongst dealers and sponsors alike.

This month we have two more trade shows to look forward to, for both the agricultural machinery and professional turfcare markets. LAMMA is up first at the NEC on January 15th-16th - and then in Harrogate from the 21st to 23rd we have BIGGA's BTME show.

Perhaps these events will offer some clearer indications of what the industry vibes are at the start of this new year? As ever Service Dealer will report from both.

But of course, what will always remain our most accurate barometer of what's happening out there at the sharp end is you, our loyal dealer readers. As ever, throughout the course of this year please don't forget that this is your journal.

At Service Dealer, we value and indeed depend on the views and feedback of our dealer readers. Your input shapes the content we create.

So please do share your thoughts on any articles we publish, whether here in the Weekly Update or on our website. If there’s an industry issue or concern that's affecting your business that you’d like to raise with our community of dealer readers, or something you’d just like to hear others’ experiences on - please feel free to drop me line.

Your insights from the front line of the industry will always guide what we cover. That’s why we’re always keen to include as many dealer perspectives and voices as possible. So don't be shy. Keep in touch.

With your help we promise to keep you informed on everything of relevance to your dealershps. Each Friday at noon in your inbox, every other month through your letterbox and all the time via our website and socials, we'll have it covered.

We look forward to experiencing the industry's 2025 together with you all.