AGCO Being difficult with smaller dealerships?
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Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=198541
Printed Date: 24 Sep 2024 at 3:33pm
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Topic: AGCO Being difficult with smaller dealerships?
Posted By: nickia
Subject: AGCO Being difficult with smaller dealerships?
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2023 at 7:59pm
| 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? |
Replies:
Posted By: dfwallis
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2023 at 8:38pm
| That would be incredibly dumb on their part. It's getting darn hard to locate a dealer as it is. There's none within 80 miles of me where I am. |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2023 at 8:58pm
| 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. |
Posted By: nickia
Date Posted: 04 Dec 2023 at 9:18pm
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I guess I dont know how it makes there cost lower when people are jumping ship to a different brand I bleed orange and my brother is red and we are thinking about picking a different color |
Posted By: jeickman01
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 7:37am
| 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. |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 7:54am
| Then, there's the old 80%/20% thing. 20% of new car dealerships deliver 80% of the manufacturers new sales. So, that means the large mega stores move more volume of product. |
Posted By: JPG AUSTRALIA
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 8:20am
| 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. |
Posted By: JoeM(GA)
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 9:21am
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All the colors are, and have been doing it for quite a while, they want a large well backed group, not a bunch of mom and pop dealers to contend with. Why make 50 calls to dealers when one call to a holder of 30-50 dealerships covers the same ground. It's been happening in tractors for over 30 years, now here in Georgia, home of AGCO US home office, there are only 3 dealers, all more than 80 miles from me, 3 companies hold the over 100 green dealers in GA, Kubota seems to be slowly moving that way too. The only small independents I see around here any more are the second tier brands that are moving up (LS, Kioti,Branson ETC) Your local dealer that knows you are fast a thing of the past. Sad! ------------- Allis Express North Georgia 41 WC,48 UC Cane,7-G's, Ford 345C TLB |
Posted By: Lars(wi)
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 10:28am
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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. ------------- I tried to follow the science, but it was not there. I then followed the money, and that’s where I found the science. |
Posted By: sparky
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 10:53am
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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.
------------- It's the color tractor my grandpa had! |
Posted By: victoryallis
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 11:21am
Local Deere dealer got bought out by larger chain and cleaned house. It drastically improved the parts department. ------------- 8030 and 8050MFWD, 7580, 3 6080's, 160, 7060, 175, heirloom D17, Deere 8760 |
sparky wrote:Posted By: dfwallis
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 11:43am
| There's still a Kubota dealer on every 2nd corner and a JD dealer on every 3rd corner, but no AGCO dealer for 80 miles. At least they need to be competitive. |
Posted By: tadams(OH)
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 12:32pm
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Here in Ohio all John Deere deaslerships are owned by a guy fro Indiana the last I knew |
Posted By: thendrix
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 1:15pm
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New Massey dealer opened close to us. Other than that it's either Deere, Kubota, or LS for the next several hours in any direction. I hope the Massey dealer is able to hang on. Got my eye on a 4707 low clearance for the chicken houses. Need another 70 (or a little more) hp tractor for either decaking or windrowing. ------------- "Farming is a business that makes a Las Vegas craps table look like a regular paycheck" Ronald Reagan |
Posted By: jeickman01
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 4:48pm
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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. We lament the bygone days of a personalized way of doing business with a mom and pop type dealership but it would seem that the farmer customer base has also consolidated, grown larger in size and capitalization, and requires a different type of dealer for support. If AGCO can provide better support for its customers by enabling/encouraging smaller dealers to work with/through larger dealers, that's a winning strategy.
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Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 5:49pm
| Some years ago an old AC dealership I knew, that still carried Agco parts - but New Holland was keeping the doors open , anyway they said it cost $1500 a month just to keep the Agco parts computer stuff, sure its more now !! |
Posted By: im4racin
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 6:11pm
| Apparently fAGCO has forgotten why allis bought rumbled….. |
Posted By: jeickman01
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 6:18pm
| Dealer parts management monthly software support fees are seemingly astronomical until you have a need to contact them for specific requests and until you remember that they are providing monthly price file uploads and system upgrades and fixes. If you have ever worked in a dealership you know how this can affect profitability and customer satisfaction. Again, I hate to say it but the farm customer base is no longer tilling the soil with a WD45 and the dealer organization has evolved beyond supporting a WD45. AGCO has to do what it can to match the other colors even in spite of some lines such as Fendt being far superior. Sorry if this is straying too far from Allis. |
Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 6:41pm
| Last post holds alot of thruth there- the times they have and are changing !! |
Posted By: sparky
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 8:06pm
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My post wasn’t as much about parts but more about p-poor service. Seems like their attitude is “Where else are you going to take your service problems?” ------------- It's the color tractor my grandpa had! |
Posted By: EPALLIS
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 8:23pm
| 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. |
Posted By: dfwallis
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2023 at 9:04pm
| I only wish them well. But I think they're shooting themselves in the foot. You have to have product out where people will see it. They need to be able to see it, climb on it, not have to drive 80 or more miles. They'll just forget about AGCO altogether since they don't care. They've killed off nearly all of the US brands. Only ferin' ones left. I think they could raise some interest by creating minor brand "personality" modifications some at the last mile dealer. So you could get an Oliver badge and trim, e.g. a grill change (or MM or White or AC). One high quality tractor, multiple to order color schemes and badging. They should at least give it a go. I'm not really sure about the status of some of those brands, but they were absorbed into White and they SHOULD belong to AGCO at least. |
Posted By: Leon B MO
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2023 at 9:13am
|
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. We have several big Deere dealers around here and all my neighbors say, when you walk in for a part the say "We'll have it here in the morning". So even they don't carry a large parts inventory. As long as my son and I can get parts and keep our fleet running, that's what I plan to do, putting rod bearings in the 8070 now, 8050fwa is next. But as more and more of these 40 year old tractors get taken out of service, the harder it will be to keep the remaining ones going. Leon B Mo ------------- Uncle always said "Fill the back of the shovel and the front will take care of itself". |
Posted By: garden_guy
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2023 at 11:26am
| Yeah it's a 90 minute drive for me to the closest dealer... Which granted I only use for my WD parts, but it's hard to support them when they aren't close. I picked up my rim paint from CASE-IH cuz it was a 20 minute drive and Argent Silver isn't too crazy. |
Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2023 at 5:54pm
| 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? |
Posted By: BillinAlberta
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2023 at 6:43pm
|
The dealers I have dealt with both in Alberta and now Saskatchewan won't charge for shipping to the dealership if it can wait for the regular stock order.If you need it in a hurry you pay. Shipping to the farm....you pay. Going 80 miles to pick up 1 part costs so much in carbon tax that you just pay and pay and pay.
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Posted By: plummerscarin
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2023 at 7:19pm
| Same experience for me. I can save a little if I wait for stock order then have it Spee Dee'd to me |
Posted By: dfwallis
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2023 at 7:24pm
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Posted By: ajl
Date Posted: 07 Dec 2023 at 8:20am
| 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. |