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Jeffersonville, OH | OK folks, time for a little bit of setting the record straight.
We are an AGCO Dealer in Southern Ohio. Massey, Gleaner, Hesston, White PLanter, ETC. Full line other than Challenger.
Did AGCO only sell 12 MF Combines last year? Yes. Maybe a few more or less, but about that many. If anyone would like to know why they only sold that many, I can give you a really good reason why they only sold 12. It's because customers only ordered 12. Sales drive product availability. AGCO doesn't kill products arbitrarily, we have been with them since the beginning. Just like with the Orange tractors and White tractors, when customers don't buy a product, then they can only keep building them for so long hoping to sell them.
Is Challenger on the chopping block? That, I can't answer, because I'm not the dealer. BUT, see my previous comments about customers buying a product. Just because there is a good dealer in your area, doesn't mean they are selling everywhere. We sold a lot of Orange tractors, but Globally, they didn't sell enough to justify them. We don't have to like it here, but understanding it may help a little.
Here's what I do know...Challenger wasn't selling in Europe, so those products are now branded FENDT which has a GLOBAL following and serious brand recognition everywhere but the USA. How long will it last here? Again, simple, if you buy them, and support your dealers and the product, then AGCO will continue it.
The Gleaner brand is proof of this. I'll share a little story not very many customers know. In 2005 at the AGCO Dealer Business meeting, a guy by the name of Jim Walker had wrote off the Gleaner brand and it was dead and announced as such that morning. However, us Gleaner dealers know too much about that brand and what it is for AGCO to let it go without a fight, and a couple hours later, Walker had to tuck his tail because we had all made such a big deal about it that they had no other choice. One of the biggest advocates for that Brand was Kevin Bien, and he took the opportunity he was given and ran with it. Look at the Gleaner now. Is it perfect, nope, but what mechanical machine is perfect?
The moral of the story is, it takes people fighting for products sometimes. Us dealers will fight for them tooth and nail if our customers show us that they prefer that product via sales. I won't fight for a product that doesn't sell well, or bring value to our customers. Is the Massey combine one of those? It does bring a good value to the customers that like them, but it's not selling well. I believe a large portion of the MF combine customer went to the Ideal last fall, it would be their call to say whether they made the right choice.
Take it for what it is, one mans opinion. But remember one more thing, the world is a big place, and AGCO is a global company, just like Deere, and CNH. All big companies make decisions based on that fact today, they can't just do what we want here in the USA. If you think that the others only care about what happens here, you are sorely mistaken and misinformed. I can tell you that they all do care a lot about what happens here and what works for us, but it is not the only concern they have to balance when considering products.
Chris | |
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MF combines
