AGCO Being difficult with smaller dealerships?

Any one or any locations have received letters from AGCO talking about down sizing or forcing smaller dealers to do business through other AGCO dealers on farm equipment?   

Yes, that seems to be what's going on. They want larger multi-store dealerships that sell a "minimum" of "X" millions of dollars of equipment per year. Makes their dealer maintenance costs lower. Sad but true, unfortunately.

Would seem to me that one time smaller more numerous dealers made sense for manufacturers.  Then as the machinery became more sophisticated and expensive the capitalization and service capabilities of dealerships had to increase substantially.  Manufacturers most likely know that the success of the line depends on the dealer network's ability to diagnose and fix ordinary failures quickly.  When a dealer can't do this,  the brand suffers.  Smaller dealers who aren't capitalized well enough to provide adequate support sometimes rely on cannibalizing machine sales of nearby dealers to stay afloat.  Would seem that a manufacturer such as Deere which at one time probably had as many dealerships as Chevrolet would desire a rationalization of the dealer network.  But an AGCO would have to figure out how to adequately support the brand, again in view of the increased capitalization and service capability requirements, with the smaller dealer network they have. 

My closest agco dealer lost his agco deal because of this small sales crap at least 6 or 7 years ago,they still operate selling other brands tho.

This a trend that has been going on for decades, in other industries as well. Harken back to the ‘40’s all thru till the late ‘60’s early ‘70’s, nearly all the gas stations in your town were actually owned by the company whose brand name was on the sign at the curb. Depending on State laws, the people operating the gas station, may have owned the ‘business’ but not the property or the fuel in the underground tanks, they got a ‘per gallon’ stipend for every gallon sold. What the ‘service bays’ earned(minus rent) was for the business owner to keep. By the early ‘70’s with many of these gas stations approaching 20+ years old, and the ‘oil crisis’ and the looming underground tank regulations that the major oil companies knew were on the horizon, were more than willing to sell those physical properties to the station operator. After another decade or so, the major’s, thru supplier contracts, allocation commitments, etc., it became necessary for those mom & pop station owners to consolidate or sell to an operator that had numerous locations. The trend continues to this day.

sparky wrote: Concerning what JoeM said about one company owning all the dealerships our problem here.in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky is one company owns all and none and I mean NONE of the dealerships are worth a darn at servicing the equipment. At least in the small dealership era you could go to another but now there’s no competition within the brands. To clarify I’m speaking of 9 dealerships owned by 1 CEO.

Local Deere dealer got bought out by larger chain and cleaned house. It drastically improved the parts department.

Here in Ohio all John Deere deaslerships are owned by a guy fro Indiana the last I knew

A large multi-store dealer usually has a more sophisticated parts management software system to stock the right parts based on sales history and forecasted needs based on new model sales, more $$$ to lay those parts into stock, more $$$ to employ someone who is good at managing this and an internal freight shuttle system to move emergency ordered parts overnight or even same day between their stores.   

Apparently fAGCO has forgotten why allis bought rumbled…..

Last post holds alot of thruth there- the times they have and are changing !!

Edited by DougG - 05 Dec 2023 at 6:42pm

I also don't agree much anymore with what  AGCO does.  The Robert Ratliff days are long gone.   However, they still handle all the orange A-C parts I need for 60 year old tractors.  So, that still means a lot to me.  When they stop doing that, then we will have something to complain about.

    My dealer is only a 30 minutes away. Call them for a part and almost always they have to order it. But most important parts are still available at least. We are lucky enough that we don't need their service department. we do everything ourselves. But their shop is always full. Their major line is New-Holland and Kubota. I have never seen a new piece of anything Agco in their lot. 

One thing Agco was/is pushing buying online thru your dealer- but you gotta pay shipping and it shipped directly to you- have heard of if they have to order a part sent to the dealership - there is a shipping price?  

Same experience for me. I can save a little if I wait for stock order then have it Spee Dee'd to me

I have had good luck with my local agco store about 20 miles away.   It is part of a 12 store chain.  (Agriterra)   Have gotten parts for my MF combine and my 8070 there.  Try to support them as much as possible so they stay here.  Just bought another MF 9790 combine.   Otherwise would run a Gleaner but they are very hard to come by used in my budget.  They have some new MF tractors in stock and have some Fendt at the local.  I like the new MF 5S and 6S tractors.