The high level of commitment, service and support offered by four CLAAS UK dealers to their customers has been recognised in the company's annual Dealer Excellence Awards.

The highest Platinum Dealer Excellence Award, which is new for this year, was awarded to Rickerby Ltd, who are based in Carlisle and have eight branches throughout the north of England and Scotland.


Ken Conley receives the CLAAS UK Platinum Dealer Excellence award for Rickerby Ltd from CLAAS Group Executive Board Member Jan-Hendrik Mohr (left). With them are Trevor Tyrrell, CEO CLAAS UK, and Thierry Panadero, CLAAS Group Regional President Western Europe.

The Gold Dealer Excellence Awards were won by Hamblys Ltd, Gordons Ltd and Erwin-Agricare Ltd. Hamblys are the main dealer for the south west of England where they have five branches, while the six Gordons branches cover the south west of Scotland and Erwin-Agricare have two branches in Northern Ireland.

The awards were presented to the winning dealerships by Jan-Hendrik Mohr, CLAAS Group Executive Board member responsible for Sales and Service. The awards were made at the annual CLAAS UK Dealer Council meeting, which this year was held at the Agritechnica Show.

The CLAAS Platinum and Gold Dealer Excellence Awards take into account all aspects of the dealer's business, including not only the standards of service and support offered by all the dealership's branches to their customers, but also the company's commitment to its own staff and the CLAAS franchise.

For Rickerby to win the new highest level Platinum Dealer Excellence Award was a considerable achievement, because as one of the largest CLAAS dealerships in the UK, all eight of the company's branches were individually evaluated as part of the overall assessment.

Similarly, in winning the Gold Dealer Excellence Award, all the Hamblys, Gordons and Erwin-Agricare branches were appraised as part of the overall dealership assessment.

"By winning the Platinum and Gold Dealer Excellence Awards, these recognise the commitment that Rickerby, Hamblys, Gordons and Erwin have invested in their businesses during 2015, and to manage such high appraisal ratings across a large number of branches is a huge achievement and worthy of such recognition," states Trevor Tyrrell, CLAAS UK CEO.