FarmTrac Troubles

[Thack]

Sounds like Farmtrac is a thing of the past, wishfull thinking can't change anything. Bobcat is now in the game, Deutz-Fahr has tractors sitting on Framtrac dealer lots...

[racerxxx1968]

ive been following this for a few days and its really kinda sad that with the economy seemingly down there are lots companys hurting..i have a friend who sells farmtrac and i was considering buying a 555dtc w/fel i know they are good tractors heck the utility types are ford and we all know they was good and they have a great financeing at less than zero..i know my dealer thinks they have been good to work with hopefully they can be salvaged a good unit at a decent price, guess im gonna have to shop for either the big green or big blue since thats the only other choices were i live (sigh)

[pete-mi]

I think the less than zero financing was the thing that hurt them the most. Its hard for a company to make money selling a tractor for 0% and giving money back each year to.

[Viezur]

The Lower than Zero" program was a way to increase cash flow, Instead of writing the finance company a check for the total interest cost of the loan at signing, (several thousand dollars) the company opts to reimburse/amortize the interest over the life of the loan (2-5 years) by making installment payments to the retail customers. This, of course, frees up a lot of cash at the beginning because instead of spending 3-5 million dollars on low rate financing buy downs, you only have to pay a few hundred thousand dollars out to customers for the first year or two. But what happens when the cash is used for operations/other purposes and payments stop going to customers?

[Bryan_E]

you can still get parts through the manufacturing from there company store there in tarboro. 252-823-1163

[tommybr]

Don't count Farmtrac out just yet...there are alot of negotiations going on behind the scenes that the public is not aware of......something is hopefully going to happen by the end of this week. This according to a source from inside the facilities at Tarboro.

[CCI]

All of a sudden we have new members joining TBN and their first posts are inside information on Farmtrac. It very well might prove out to be accurate and true information but it also could be a spin to try and keep consumer confidence up. I'd say by now Textron will have their hands full with the dealers. You don't slam the door in a dealers face and magically knock on his door in 2 weeks and say let's play ball.

Everyone can see what the dealers feel like because it's been posted already. I can not for the life of me understand why Farmtrac does not include the dealers in their solution. If you make the dealers upset then how are they going to sell those 5000 tractors. Solid dealers insure customer confidence in a tractor.

I sure hope this situation could be worked out quickly but it does not seem anyone is motivated yet.

[Charolais]

Originally Posted by CCI

All of a sudden we have new members joining TBN and their first posts are inside information on Farmtrac. It very well might prove out to be accurate and true information but it also could be a spin to try and keep consumer confidence up. I'd say by now Textron will have their hands full with the dealers. You don't slam the door in a dealers face and magically knock on his door in 2 weeks and say let's play ball.

Everyone can see what the dealers feel like because it's been posted already. I can not for the life of me understand why Farmtrac does not include the dealers intheir solution. If you make the dealers upset then how are they going to sell those 5000 tractors. Solid dealers insure customer confidence in a tractor.

I sure hope this situation could be worked out quickly but it does not seem anyone is motivated yet.

I'll have to agree with tommybr. That doesn't mean that Farmtrac will ever go back in to operation but it does mean it's not over until it's over. I've been on the phone a lot the last two weeks. I can't and won't post what I've learned but to understand what went wrong, it helps to know the root cause. Farmtrac was doing great until it's first CEO left to join another company in Sept. of 06. After he left things took a down turn and perhaps was caused by bad leadership.

Farmtrac hit the ground running with a great product at a decent price and impeccable service,and I'm speaking for myself with this comment. If I had questions I got answers. If I had issues those issues were corrected. I even talked to engineers at the plant to work out a hydraulic problem on one model and they made a production change to correct that problem. Plus they cured the problem I had too. When I needed a straight drawbar because the curved one that came with the tractor wouldn't work on my hay conditioner they sent me a straight drawbar and we traded. They had all that and can return to that again if someone sees it's worth keeping it alive and see that the right management is in place to get the ball rolling in the right direction. That may or may not happen. If it doesn't then a good tractor company is going down the tubes. I would hope they can get back on track and return to operations. The final decision should be made soon now. I just hope all those plant workers can get back to work. If they make a come back it may come back bigger than before. I haven't written them off yet. When I see the final word I'll believe it then.

I know I have my dealers support which ever way it goes and I'll keep on putting hours on my Farmtrac either way.

[tommybr]

None of us, least of all myself , can claim to have a crystal ball and be able to predict the future about Farmtrac or anything else. I just think that if Textron wants to get any of their money back, they better be figuring out a way to keep Farmtrac going. This is just my opinion....based on some things being discussed.

[CCI]

Originally Posted by tommybr

None of us, least of all myself , can claim to have a crystal ball and be able to predict the future about Farmtrac or anything else. I just think that if Textron wants to get any of their money back, they better be figuring out a way to keep Farmtrac going. This is just my opinion....based on some things being discussed.

I totally agree that it is in Textron's best interest if they can get Farmtrac back up and running. But Textron has treated the dealers like the dealers were the problem not the management of Farmtrac.
When Farmtrac could not pay Sicma for orders and Sicma took all their orders back and resold them via Unifarm & Goforth that was the first signs Farmtrac was in trouble. Framtrac had rather grandiose ideas in 2003 & 04 that they would manufacture rotary cutters and dirt working implements. It was and is the worst possible time to be starting in that business. Absolutely no profit margins are in that sector now, only King Kutter made any money last year.