Customers benefit from established dealer’s investment in Northants depot
9th June 2021
New Holland main dealer Russells celebrates 100 years of trading this year and remains a family-owned business where customer service is the priority. There are 11 branches, of which two
New Holland main dealer Russells celebrates 100 years of trading this year and remains a family-owned business where customer service is the priority. There are 11 branches, of which two specialise in groundcare products, and nine are agricultural – including five in Yorkshire, two in Derbyshire, one in Nottinghamshire and the most recent at Rothwell in Northamptonshire.
The large trading area includes all sizes and types of farm and contracting business, so the dealer is one of the biggest tractor, combine and baler dealers in the UK. Russells was New Holland’s Dealer of the Year for 2019, and was awarded New Holland Service Dealer of the Year for the same period – it is the only dealer to have achieved this Premium status to date.
“From our new Rothwell depot, we look after customers in Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, while the Northallerton depot is responsible for an area up to Scotch Corner, and with all the depots in-between and those serving areas to the east and west too – it’s a very large trading area,” explained Russells machinery sales specialist based at Rothwell, Andy Loxton. “The Russell family continues to invest for the future and during the past five years the Cubley, Derbyshire depot has been rebuilt; the previous Platts Harris depots at Darley Dale, Derbyshire and Tuxford, Nottinghamshire were taken on; a new depot at Leyburn, North Yorkshire was constructed, and the Rothwell depot and trading area were acquired.”
The area served by Rothwell was previously the responsibility of a dealer which offered New Holland sales and service from a depot at Wellingborough. When this business closed in 2016, a neighbouring dealer, Hallmark Tractors, took on the area and selected the nearby Rothwell site for its depot. In 2016 Russells acquired the Hallmark Tractors business, but the existing trading name and site branding were retained, being familiar to customers in the area. Almost all the sales and service team members remained at the depot under its new ownership, having also previously looked after the same customers at the business’ previous location.
“We have a team of 10 based at Rothwell covering sales and service, of which seven have worked together since being employed by the dealer previous to Hallmark Tractors,” confirmed Andy. “That provides great continuity for customers – something we know is valued by the farming community as this remains a business where people deal with people.”
The depot’s business growth during the past two years has been impressive, even though Covid-19 restrictions prevented many planned marketing activities in 2020. Andy said that as well as continued support from long-established customers, the sales and service teams have also gained many which are new – most recommended to use the latest Russells depot by friends and neighbours.
“Being a big dealer brings a lot of advantages including being able to offer attractive finance and extended service deals, as well as carrying out servicing and superb back-up,” commented Andy. “Many manufacturers and dealers struggled to meet demand for new and used machinery during the past year, but with nine agricultural depots within the Russell Group we hold a lot of stock and could usually source whatever customers needed without delay.”
Farming in the Rothwell depot’s trading area is mainly arable, and the New Holland T7.210 is the best- selling tractor. From the combine line-up, the CR8.90 and 9.90 rotaries as well as larger CX models have also sold in high numbers, and Group harvester sales specialist for the southern trading area David Flippance – based at Rothwell – and other team members have been preparing and delivering new combines and balers to customers for the coming harvest. The workshops and service team also remain busy carrying out service and repairs to tractors and other machinery.
As well as New Holland, the dealer also represents a large number of complementary brands. These include Pottinger, McConnel, Stewart Trailers, Teagle, Sumo, Mzuri, Shelbourne Reynolds, Stihl, HiSpec, Sulky, Wessex, and Schaffer loaders.
“We are very lucky to have Pottinger,” continued Andy. “It’s a brand renowned for great reliability and superb build quality and the excellent products are backed by equally impressive service. All sizes and types of drill have been supplied along with ploughs and the Terradisc cultivators, and although there is relatively little grassland and livestock farming in our local area, we sell quite a few mowers, rakes and tedders and have also supplied three forage wagons.”
McConnel hedgecutters are popular with farmers and contractors, Stewart Trailers are kept in stock allowing orders to be fulfilled quickly, and sales of Mzuri drills are increasing as growers reduce costs of crop establishment while also wanting flexibility for difficult seasons. For farm and estate maintenance, the Teagle range of flail mowers is in constant demand.
“The agricultural machinery industry has seen a lot of upheaval in recent years, but I think part of our success at the Rothwell depot is that the long-established sales and service teams continue to represent the same quality brands. As well as retaining the support of farming businesses which have dealt with us for many years, we have also gained enquiries and orders from new customers and this is largely due to the extra benefits we can offer with the respected Russells name behind us. Looking to the future, plans are well advanced to develop the site further, including construction of a purpose-built 10,000ft2 building designed to optimise working conditions for service and repair of modern, large machinery. This will further improve the service we can provide to customers and ensure we can meet their expectations in future as the business grows.
“We are in an ideal location right beside junction 3 of the A14 which means that even those travelling longer distances can get to us quickly. We are a friendly bunch, always approachable and far prefer working with customers than creating complications,” he concluded.
