John Deere doesnt want to deal with the little guy any longer?

[Mowingman]

I have a friend who's sone was pretty high up in Deere, and climbing the corp ladder. He will tell you that it is a fact that Deere does not want to continue with any "one deaelrship" operators. They want only large dealers who own mulitple stores.
I have another friend who is currently working with a company to buy out more JD dealerships, as fast as they can. This is to prevent Deere from pushing them out the door.
So, this story is most likely 100% true, for the exact reason given.

[Will P.C.]

This seems like a medium to large dealer, but could be wrong. It could be as simple as more profit potential with whatever line they are picking up.

Pretty one sided article with the cop out of "big business pushing out the little guy"

[yardguy28]

man that guy has a better heart than I do to keep selling jd toys and merchandise.

I'd say piss on jd and have nothing to do with them or anything jd again. except for the clients I had that need service of course.

I see jd doesn't have a forum on here like toro and exmark. I was gonna give them a piece of mind. not that I own any jd stuff and certainly won't now.

[LindblomRJ]

Originally Posted by Roger

Recall what GM and Chrysler did with the auto dealerships. Many that did not meet minimum requirements were taken out of the system, dealerships closed (or revamped to other products). I suspect the same thing happened here. It costs JD $x,xxx to have a dealership in their network. If it is not profitable because it is not turning enough revenue, keeping the dealership is not good business.

This practice is common throughout any industry. A franchise requires a minimum set of requirements (e.g. xxx sq ft of retail floor space, showroom set up, xxx seats for an eatery, etc.). These requirements are established, so they are not subjective and a surprise to the business owner. I think of Stihl making some changes locally here a few years ago. A long-time dealer had the STIHL line yanked because the store owner chose not to comply with showroom requirements (his showroom for STIHL products was horrible and he deserved to have it taken away, regardless of longevity).

To be sure, it is sad to see a long-time dealer have the rug pulled. But, the dealer may have been unable to maintain pace with the times.

I think this is a huge factor.

To go along with Mowingman's post, to meet the requirements to be a dealership many buy out smaller dealerships or the merge.

The trend towards merging has been going on for several years. I can think of three or four dealerships who were bought out by a larger dealership.

The story doesn't seem to tell the whole story. As far what Deere is doing, it might be crappy, but it is business.

[32vld]

Since 2007 I have known and who knows long before Harley has been pushing dealers to build new upscale looking large dealerships with large floor space dedicated to sales and merchandise.

Those dealerships that had been in business for generations and buildings that were old wood frame buildings, cramped sales floors had their franchises pulled when they refused to make the building improvements.

Many dealers that went to a new building went belly up when the economy went bad because the debt to up grade and drop in sales put them under.

The auto industry, where I worked as a dealer mechanic, I saw several family owned dealers get forced out because they would or could not sell enough cars.

Though this is nothing new. In 1927, Henry Ford said to all his dealers, just because you sold model T's for 20 years is no guarantee you will continue to sell model A's. Ford then told dealers what and how they had to do to upgrade their physical facility to continue as a Ford dealer.

[Richard Martin]

Originally Posted by tnmtn

If the problems have been going on for 10 years as the article says it makes me think it may have more to do with being an exclusive JD only dealer.

I believe this may actually be the case. The guy had a field full of JD equipment to sell and he's also selling who knows what else? Deere was probably literally begging this guy to get rid of the other stuff for 10 years.

JD has 30 or 40 million dollars worth of equipment sitting in this guys field and the day the Deere rep show up, there goes a Jinma down the road. That would piss me off too.

[Richard Martin]

They are also selling 2 lines of equipment that are in direct competition with JD farm equipment. Kuhn (French) and Krone (German).