It is always sad when we hear of a dealership closing their doors for good.

Hence it's a shame to report today that Bigwood Agri of Taunton, Somerset, pulled the shutters down on their business for the final time last Friday.

There will of course be a myriad of reasons as to why a firm finds themselves in a position where they have to make that ultimate decision whether to continue or not - and inevitably it will be all these factors in combination with each other that lead to the conclusion.

However, there is element to Bigwood's closure that did stand out as concerning to me and one I'm sure to which dealers around the country will be able to relate.

In speaking to the BAGMA website, Keith Bigwood says the decision that was two years in the making, followed the realisation that they were unable to find the technicians required to carry on with the first-class service that they had always prided themselves on. BAGMA report that Bigwoods were concerned they'd start to let customers down - which is a truly unfortunate situation for a business to find themselves in.

This incredibly difficult hurdle of finding the right people to recruit for the dealership though, is a story we regularly hear from our readers. In the upcoming edition of Service Dealer magazine, which will be with you shortly, we include the results of a recent survey we asked for your help with. Looking for your contributions towards the current state of recruitment in the industry, we heard that many are struggling.

An example of the feedback we received from dealers included one telling us, "We have three jobs currently available and can't find any suitable applicants. There is a shortage of youngsters willing to work, shortage of skills and unreasonable wage requirements. In developing our dealership this is the biggest challenge we face."

Another said, "We have been looking for an engineer since last August. We’ve suffered from a lack of applicants, applicants with no skills whatsoever and those that did apply were looking for wages too high for us to pay . . .The whole experience is awful and in the meantime, we struggle on!"

What can be done?

Dealers everywhere will be able to sympathise with these sentiments - but what can be done to improve the situation? It's the million dollar question of course, with no easy short cuts - but we did hear a few ideas from the network.

"We as a body need to sell the industry as exciting at school level. Particularly agriculture, which is stereotyped as old fashioned and employing low level of technology, when the reality is we engage in technology to a high degree," suggested one reader.

Another felt that training options offered by manufacturers need to be looked at in order to prove more enticing to recruits. They said, "I believe garden/groundcare machinery manufacturers could offer a 1 or 2 year training program where dealers can send trainee staff on a 1 or 2 day a month "block release" training program. . . . Manufacturers need to offer careers rather than just random training days. This way dealers can advertise for staff positions with tangible training opportunities available."

Whilst another common sense idea, which we mentioned in a blog here a few weeks back, believed that if there was less discounting and greater margin across the network, dealers would more profitable - therefore paying those higher wages for the best candidates would be more manageable.

As a quick aside on this idea of margin, we still know that despite the current supply issues and the belief that dealers should be raising prices to match demand, there are still rogues out there online, massively undercutting everyone else. It's something that's incredibly unhelpful for the whole network, setting as it does, unrealistic pricing expectations in the minds of consumers. I'm sure most reputable dealers would agree something needs to be done about this for the good of the whole network - possibly at a manufacturer / supplier level?

But I digress, getting back to the subject at hand, what do you think could be done to address the recruitment difficulties faced by all dealers? Are the trade associations doing enough? Are the manufacturers? Schools and colleges?

Please share any thoughts, or indeed offer any tips that have worked for your business when looking to expand staffing, in the comments below.

The fewer stories we must report about dealerships closing because of recruitment being a contributing factor, the better.