Lancashire dealership Clarke & Pulman has announced major developments in its business that will see the addition of Valtra to its tractor brand offer to farmers in the North-West – together with the opening of a new depot
The award of the Valtra franchise for the region coincides with the acquisition of a 2-acre site at Garstang, formerly the premises Whittingham Farm Supplies, which is set to become C&P’s dedicated Centre of Excellence for the Valtra and Fendt brands. The company’s Massey Ferguson business – both sales and service – will continue to operate from its existing Burscough base, with the sales territory unchanged.
Strategically, the new depot is ideally placed to serve the company’s new sales territory for Valtra, which stretches from the M56 motorway in the south, up as far as the entrance to the Lake District at Tebay and then across to Harrogate.
Since it was established in 2003, the company has expanded rapidly. Within two years, for example, it had launched the UK’s first on-line tractor parts website, quickly attracting customers worldwide. The business, which is owned by Ged and Sarah Clarke, serves an area from Lancaster in the north down to the M56 motorway, and from Southport across to the Pennines, west to east.
The new Garstang depot, which is more than 30 miles to the north of Burscough, will also serve to extend the Fendt sales territory in the North West as far north as Morecambe and across to the Yorkshire border
Ged Clarke explains the new set-up: “We regard AGCO’s UK distribution strategy as being very important to our business, as this will help to generate further market share. And, after all, sales generate sales!
“In the light of this approach, therefore, we have acquired our second depot, which, we anticipate, will enable us to sustain the rapid rate of growth achieved over the past five years. We take the view that re-investment into the company and our staff is the key to continued success.
“Our second depot will allow us to not only continue our drive for new machine sales, but also to offer first class after-sales support for Fendt and Valtra products . Our parts and service departments are very important aspects of the business and the new facility will allow us to carry a significantly larger number and range of spare parts. In addition, we will be able to accommodate more in-house tooling and equipment, along with stocking more spare parts on the shelf for the first-time fix.
“We, as a company, understand that our customers work a lot of hours – and, at times, all hours – and if or when they have a problem we need to be able to respond rapidly. We offer an out-of-hours on-call service and if a machine can’t be fixed there and then, we provide a stand-in machine while the problem’s being solved.”
Now, having two depots, the business is fully aligned with AGCO distribution strategy: the existing Burscough site continuing as the sales centre for Massey Ferguson, with service facilities for all its AGCO brands, while Garstang will be dedicated to Fendt and Valtra sales and service.
