Tractor Dealerships

Not wanting to hijack Wizzo's post, but it brought considerable comments about John Deere's consolidation of dealerships and concerns about the distance between now existing dealerships.
Although I grew up on a small farm, I haven't farmed in many years, but just wondering, Do any of you who do farm feel that the gap left by closing JD dealerships may encourage some of the other brands to attempt a comeback by establishing new dealerships in these areas? I realize that in order to establish a successful business such as this today, would require investment of a small fortune, but would the parent companies be willing to help in this respect in order to get it off the ground? Just curious.

The other brands have been consolidating and Case was the pioneer here starting in the 1970's. Actually, John Deere has the most in brand competition here including AGCO. There are 4 different Deere organizations within 75 miles of where I live. It's a tough balancing act between healthy competition and too big a herd with not enough customers. Some brands I remember let their situation get to the point where it was one of two people opening the door to sell parts, selectively fix what they want, and not really caring whether they sold any new product. It's tough to make a profit regardless of what color you sell and the best chance most of the time is in the parts department. That is usually a function of distance to the customer. Most farmers do not shop parts prices like they do wholegoods.

That's kind of what happened around here, a lot of local dealers and now few. JD is still the biggest player, and IH is at least fifty miles. But, there's a small NH dealer about fifteen miles away, and a larger NH dealer about forty miles. There's one AGCO dealer about forty miles away, and a larger one not too far from the nearest IH dealer. It used to be a Case dealer in the village, 3 JD dealers about ten miles away, an Oliver dealer about 11 miles, and 2 IH dealers about ten miles away. One of them now has Kubota. Big changes over the years. But with fewer farmers, I don't see much changing, except that there will be more L&G stuff at each location and the toy stuff that they sell to the horsey set.

We have Case, New Holland, and John Deere dealerships all within 10 miles of each other, not to mention LS, Mahindra and Kabota dealerships too.

We still have our local dealer but it has been bought out by a big dealer with 10-15 other stores and everything has went downhill enough to make me want to change colors.

We've got a new Agco dealer here. Not a takeover of another existing dealer. They have two other locations in Michigan,but this one is new in what was a Lowes home improvement store for a few years. They have the other stores to back them up while they get their clientele established,but the store is huge with plenty of indoor showroom space and storage for tractors,forage harvesters,planters and hay equipment. From what I'm seeing,they're already selling to customers that were Deere.

Here in Northwest Iowa Deere and CIH have a big grip on the market so a new brand of dealership would have almost no chance. We are almost all ag so there is practically no yuppie acreage sized market for the small stuff. Agco machinery is mainly found in a radius around a few dealers but nothing widespread.

A few years ago I was interested in getting a New Holland tractor but there is only one dealer 25 miles away. Deere has three dealers within 25 miles and CIH has two. If I want to go 50 miles there are, thinking offhand, six more Deeres and about that many CIH's.

I did get a tractor bought and I went with Deere mainly because the closest dealer is downhome friendly and willing to help but also because of so many other dealers within an hour or two of home if I need a part NOW that the local dealer doesn't have.

The fact that dealerships are closing is more about the number of farmers is dropping as well. As the size of farms goes up the numbers of farmers goes down.

There is a new Agco dealership 30 miles south-east of me. They are picking up some former JD guys. As a store I would say they are more profitable than the JD or CIH dealers. They have their used equipment inventory well under control. They have stayed out of the combine market just about entirely.

Long term the big brands will stay for the most part. The serious farmers rarely switch brands and they are the ones screaming about 24/7 parts and service. That takes multi stores dealerships to make it work.

40 Years ago there was that I remember...
1) JD 6 miles away
2) New Holland & Ford (Same Outlet) 13 miles
3) AC 14 miles
4) IH 14 miles
5) White/Oliver 14 miles

ALL OF THEM GONE! Nothing replaced them.

Now from the same home its...
1) JD 30 miles (was 35)
2) Case IH 40+ miles
3) Agco 60+ miles (I think)
4) Mahindra 32 miles
5) Kioti 31 miles
6) Kubota 40 miles
7) Zetor 40+ miles

From everything I have heard about the big players in this game C-IH, JD, Agco. They are wanting fewer dealers. They think its better to put up with one customer who has 20 outlets, & they certainly don't want more competition!!! I have seen posts on this very website complaining about how JD Corporate has been treating peoples small dealerships, & then posts about the end for those dealers had come, & they closed! Its always been a dog eat dog world; but now we have to pay terribly high prices for these mergers, & buyouts, & then the competition disappears, & if You don't like the way these dealers do business; they say "GO SOMEHWERE ELSE THEN" Now You may have to drive farther, & get the same ridiculous service because they know You are stuck too! Its sad; but not likely to get better!

The one JD dealer that moved closer to me closed a dealership that had theft problems, & built a new facility with police often near when I drive by!

Buddy works for a case dealer they are closing an 80 year old dealer down because it is not big enough to meet fiats criteria the mega dealer was going to buy out the little dealer but they crawfished leaving guys looking for work .

(quoted from post at 07:18:20 03/08/15) Buddy works for a case dealer they are closing an 80 year old dealer down because it is not big enough to meet fiats criteria the mega dealer was going to buy out the little dealer but they [b:5c5d6af5a7][i:5c5d6af5a7]crawfished[/i:5c5d6af5a7][/b:5c5d6af5a7] leaving guys looking for work .

Click to expand...

Please define the usage of "crawfished" as used in this context.

Thanks in advance.