Bye, Bye Branson???

[Coyote machine]

Kioti. Get another one. Forget Branson, they're likely to blow away in the next windstorm. No offense to you, or them, but I wouldn't invest in any small time, low quantity dealer supported tractor manufacturer.

World currencies aside, and charts, graphs and economists predictions make no difference in buying products locally through strong dealer networks, etc. Anything can happen, and it's impossible to predict the impact on one's situation, EXCEPT, you the OP are best suited to determine your local economic climate and trends in it that might adversely affect you. Do your due diligence and base your decisions on it's results. No need for economics 101 or more advanced mumbo-jumbo. Trust your gut and instincts.

 

[MikePA]

...or did I dodge a bullet as the next nearest Branson dealer in my state is almost 4 hours away and any after the purchase warranty/service matters would have been difficult.

Clearly, you dodged a bullet.

With 3, maybe 4, major brands, there's no reason the buy a second or third tier brand.

Would it be wise the spend $20,000, or more, to buy a car from a manufacturer with a small dealer network?

 

[Pierrepont]

Has Branson's share of the CUT market improved in the past year? Is their dealer network growing or contracting?

 

[12Bravo]

39% of boomers want to retire into a rural setting. Compared with a few years ago when the boomers where in their peak household spending (age 48) compact tractor sales are down by one third. Generation X, the latch-key kids, my generation, has just entered our peak spending years (ages 42 to 48), but we're a smaller generation and simply cannot maintain the level of consumerism of the larger boomer generation that proceeded us. The Echo Generation that follows Gen. X (the boomer's kids) is again a larger generation, but due to debt and average jobs paying 10% less than when Gen. X went to work, they are getting married and forming households later in life than either the Boomers or Gen. X generations did.

The engine that drives consumerism is marriage and family formation. Once married, young people suddenly realize that raising their kids in the city with all the action is a horrible place to raise kids, and so they become first time home buyers in the 'burbs. House purchases because a huge uptick in consumerism. Peak home spending is at age 42, and six years after that comes peak household spending as those couple fill up their 4,000 square foot house with junk.

Peak car buying is in the early sixties while peak net worth is one year after retirement. Peak drugstore spending takes place at age 73 end peak entry into assisted living is at age 82.

The single main driver of commodities is population growth but more and more western nations face a demographic cliff where there are more dyers than buyers. For this reason we've seen commodity prices generally fall as expanding demand has silently started to taper against rising production. Collapsing commodity prices hurt emerging nations first as emerging nations tend to be the largest exporters of commodities. Then we see producing nations economies become less robust as demand for their exported goods tapers off. We see this in Japan, Russia and now Germany today. China reports robust growth, but as their lagging stock market reveals, their growth has come from over-building their infrastructure, not from increased sales of goods and their own population is aging too.

Anyway, based on personal conjecture that peak compact tractor purchasing happens in people's 50s, all to say that I don't see room for expansion of total sales in the compact tractor market in the United States for another decade until the Echo Generation starts coming into their own.

Good points, but I just had a serious flash back to my economics and Macroeconomics class experience....:laughing::laughing::shocked:

 

[k0ua]

Has Branson's share of the CUT market improved in the past year? Is their dealer network growing or contracting?

Apparently from what we hear the parent company Kukje is up for sale. Who will buy it and what will happen, I don't know.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Last I heard, no buyer could be found, and they were going to take bids...

SR

 

[DavesTractor]

Branson is a small player, but they are profitable in the USA and growing. We have been a dealer for them for 14 years. It's a well built tractor and an attractive price. There have been rumors of takeovers since about 2005 or 2006, yet they continue to come out with new models and even opened a new distribution center on the west coast in the last year. That isn't the sort of thing you do if you plan to pull out of a market. They will sign up dealers that JD, NH and Kubota won't touch, but that is or has been the case with most of the smaller brands. When Mahindra was first trying to gain market share, they would put 3 tractors in a cow pasture as long as the farmer had space in his barn to change oil. And a lot of those guys became big dealers, and a lot of them vanished. Now that Mahindra has grown so much, they have set the bar much higher. That seems to be the natural progression. What I like is that they are growing, even if at a slow pace. And they treat their dealers great.

 

[RollingsFarms]

Apparently from what we hear the parent company Kukje is up for sale. Who will buy it and what will happen, I don't know.

Couldn't have picked a worse time to sell a heavy equipment company than right now. Everyone knows a second recession is coming, we just don't know when. I wouldn't be sinking billions into a new company right now. No way.

 

[RollingsFarms]

Branson is a small player, but they are profitable in the USA and growing. We have been a dealer for them for 14 years. It's a well built tractor and an attractive price. There have been rumors of takeovers since about 2005 or 2006, yet they continue to come out with new models and even opened a new distribution center on the west coast in the last year. That isn't the sort of thing you do if you plan to pull out of a market. They will sign up dealers that JD, NH and Kubota won't touch, but that is or has been the case with most of the smaller brands. When Mahindra was first trying to gain market share, they would put 3 tractors in a cow pasture as long as the farmer had space in his barn to change oil. And a lot of those guys became big dealers, and a lot of them vanished. Now that Mahindra has grown so much, they have set the bar much higher. That seems to be the natural progression. What I like is that they are growing, even if at a slow pace. And they treat their dealers great.

I've been following Mahindra some and have been waiting to see when they try to expand into my market (South Carolina). They only have one dealer here that I know of but he's not what I'd call a "traditional dealer". He sells a little bit of everything, not just tractors. I haven't seen a new dealer open up in my area in I don't know how long that wasn't Deere. They're expanding but no one else is it seems like. Mahindra could do well in this area in the CUT market that's mainly owned by Kubota who doesn't have many dealers close by.

 

[coolnick73]

Branson is a small player, but they are profitable in the USA and growing. We have been a dealer for them for 14 years. It's a well built tractor and an attractive price. There have been rumors of takeovers since about 2005 or 2006, yet they continue to come out with new models and even opened a new distribution center on the west coast in the last year. That isn't the sort of thing you do if you plan to pull out of a market.

This thread has me more comfortable with Branson than before. It's nice to see that predictions of Branson's demise have been going on for awhile.

Is there the same amount of demise talk with other (what I consider 2nd tier) brands LS, TYM, Kioti, as there is Branson?