beginning of the end for some local dealers??

[Soundguy]

my local CNH dealer recently was sold by the very long time owner to a 'investment' owner.. a family member of the new owner came in to run the place. In the period of a few months they have let go most of the old counter and shop help. in fact.. the only people I can say for sure are long time employees are one guy at the counter, the secretary, and one guy in the shop.

Anyway.. I was calling aprts to get some coolant conditioner.. FW15 for my tractors.. and now hear they no longer stock it.. it is special order.

OK.. most of my machines are gassers.. and I do have a few diesels.. but the overwhelming bulk of tractors sold thru that dealer in the last oh.. 40ys will be diesel.. what's the logic of not stocking the conditioner?

soundguy

 

[kenstrac]

my local CNH dealer recently was sold by the very long time owner to a 'investment' owner.. a family member of the new owner came in to run the place. In the period of a few months they have let go most of the old counter and shop help. in fact.. the only people I can say for sure are long time employees are one guy at the counter, the secretary, and one guy in the shop.

Anyway.. I was calling aprts to get some coolant conditioner.. FW15 for my tractors.. and now hear they no longer stock it.. it is special order.

OK.. most of my machines are gassers.. and I do have a few diesels.. but the overwhelming bulk of tractors sold thru that dealer in the last oh.. 40ys will be diesel.. what's the logic of not stocking the conditioner?

soundguy

Need I say anymore!

 

[Soundguy]

seems like that would be something to keep on hand though.. that's a much needed item... I can understand not stocking other things people might shop for.. like oils and such.. but.... wow... lookin bad!

soundguy

 

[dave1949]

Not sure what an 'investment owner' is. Do you think they are winding down the business to eventually close it? Maybe the location is what they really invested in.
Dave.

 

[Soundguy]

I was told a cpa bought the business as an investment. not sure if that meant the land.. or not.. but so far it sure is looking like he's winding it down all right..

soundguy

 

[RadarTech]

I was told a cpa bought the business as an investment. not sure if that meant the land.. or not.. but so far it sure is looking like he's winding it down all right..

soundguy

Let me make a couple of comments..

CPA's think about bottom line.. all numbers.. and every thought they have makes little sense to the common person...

If that part is $$ and is sold once per month, or even twice, I would see why they would not keep it..

Recently was imparted a story--
A new CPA started at a company, they had a project with some 30 odd parts.
the parts were not ordered when they were all in stock at the source as they were not needed for install... and did not want the stocking distributor to bill for somthing the customer would not pay for.

time came to install and 2 critical parts were then backordered for 3 weeks.

this was a cash flow decision... but became a customer satisfaction issue.

Now can I see the decision as being the right one for the cash flow. But I can see the customer part too...

In the issue you see at the dealer, it is all about dealership management coordination with the new owner and cashflow issues at hand....

I suspect it will get better as cash flow increases or gets better.. hopefully it does not go the other way....

J

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. I'm sure it's a bean counter deal....-0- stock costs.. and about as much customer satisfaction.

I'm a lil scared.. I called last week and they still had 1 counter guy from the old company.. I called today.. and the 'son' answered and put me on hold and had to figure out if they had the part or if it was special order.. took forever.

oh yeah.. neither the new owner or family know anything about tractors.

the guys they fired could tell you what you needed.. or knew what you were talking about.. like question:" I need a lift piston oring and backup washewr for a 55-62 4 cyl "
answer:"yep.. got a box of them, come on it" vs.. um.. so what machine.. what sn.. what year.. let me look it up.. ok.. what part does that fit.. um.. what section of the tractor.. etc.. etc.. etc.. ho hum.... like having your new doctor walk in the office to examine you, and you see it's the guy from the grocery store, but he had a PDR in his hands while fumbling trying to put rubber gloves on....

I want the guy at the tracor dealer to know more than I do about my machine ...

soundguy

 

[dave1949]

That's a shame. Not my area of experience, but I don't picture a tractor dealership as a 'hot' investment, especially not now. Furthermore, it's hard to see how money can be made without knowledgeable people in a tractor business. Hard to make money on parts and service with no 'servicers'.

I have to assume the CPA knows what he is doing, but it doesn't seem like running a profitable tractor dealership is his goal.
Dave.

 

[eepete]

I've seen a couple of companies get bought up by investment/cpa owners. Radar Tech's story is right on. The crux of the problem is that the new owners can't or don't put a value on having all the parts the customer needs. They see no problem with cutting out the bottom 10% selling products. They maximize the profits and in the process force the customer to go to the competition to get the job done. With the electronic companies I've seen, they outsource to much stuff causing delays and increased in development cycles or they cut out features of products to reduce costs and end up with useless generic garbage.

I see this at Lowes. They sell 3" conduit, but not the caps or LBs. I asked, and the electrical department head said that they wouldn't sell enough of them to justify the floor space. What he is missing is they don't have enough pieces to do the job. So I go to an electric supply house at the start of the job, and use Lowes which is closer as the pick up place for stupid little parts I forgot about. Just about every project I do needs trips to Lowes, Home Depot, and some other place because none of them have all the parts to do a project. But Lowes is profitable and HD could even pay off an idiot so he would leave.

There used to be a balance between the "CPA front office", "marketing and sales", and "the technical/knowledge side" of all businesses. The CPA and profit side are 80% of the control now. We like it went our stocks have profits, and hate it when buying things is rough due to stupid decisions like have been discussed here.

A great deal of the decline of business in the U.S. is by our own hand.

Soundguy, I hope you can find a dealer that doesn't have their engine controller in their differential.

Pete

 

[dave1949]

eepete - I understand the concept, everybody does what is most immediately profitable for them, and others develop a profitable business filling the unmet needs. Not sure that model can be successfully applied to a tractor dealership.

Not to wander off topic too far, but I have seen news stories recently that businesses cannot find workers with the needed skills now to ramp up post-recession. How far beyond a bean counter's desk would one have to look to see that coming? I think it's a good example of causing our own suffering, as you put it.
Dave.