Birkey’s Farm Stores’ ownership structure is a big positive, says CEO Ron Birkey. Not only does each of the 6 stockholders have considerable experience in the farm equipment field, but historically, the owners also serve as high-level managers in day-to-day operations.
When the final count for 2010 is complete, the amount of harvested corn could be an all time record; and at a minimum, the recent harvest should rank in the top five years of harvested corn with the other top five years coming from the preceding four years. With five years of record production, one would expect supplies to be high, and demand to be slowing. But just the opposite is occurring.
This installment of Trade Values & Trends takes a look at resale values of various types of farm machinery over a 3-year period. The data includes several machinery types, ranging from mower conditioners at the low end to high-clearance sprayers in the upper price range. The resale values for 7 tractor sizes have also been given a close look.
How you organize your dealership is fundamental to your success. Whether your dealership has one store, a few or several locations, the choice of how you organize your company has a direct bearing on your performance.
With 382 exhibitors, 174,500 square feet of displays and a myriad of educational sessions, the 2011 Ag Connect Expo, January 7-11 in Atlanta, Ga., offered enough to keep four Farm Equipment editors more than a little busy. This year’s show attracted some 12,000 visitors, which was a major step up from last year’s 7,700 attendees. Ag Connect Expo will now go to a 2-year cycle with the next show scheduled for Orlando, Fla., in 2013.
When customers see a dealer as a source of information, the perceived value of the dealer increases. Customers want a great price on equipment, but they also want the knowledge to support and stand behind that equipment.
Every manager usually has some headaches waiting for them when they get to the office. Not Craig Greenwood, service manager at Birkey’s Farm Store’s Hoopeston, Ill., location.
Birkey’s Farm Stores believes that rewarding performance should go beyond the sales department and should also go beyond being just another way to get paid. At least that’s the way Mark Foster, Ag Division manager sees it.
While Mike Carley is comfortable delegating day-to-day decisions to his key managers, he also realizes that at the end of the day, he holds ultimate responsibility for the store’s performance. He needs to stay involved.
Mike Carley, general manager of the company’s Gibson City store, explains that in 2009, a drawn-out harvest season helped keep the service department busy through December.
Mike Carley says one of the keys to the success at the Gibson City Birkey’s Farm Store is having the right people in place in key positions. But what makes those people the right people?
It sounds cliché, but spend time with the team at Birkey’s Farm Store, and it’s clear that pulling in the same direction, checking the egos at the door and subordinating individual or site-specific interests to the larger entity are root factors in this dealership’s success. Teamwork, as it’s spoken about in downstate Illinois and the various locations, does not appear to be lip service. Birkey’s, it seems, is “walking its talk.”
It may not be everyone’s dream job, but bring up numbers, spreadsheets, reports and benchmarks in a conversation and you’re squarely in Phil Fayhee’s wheelhouse. It’s well established that the real money in any farm equipment dealership is made in the aftermarket department, and Birkey’s is no different with a nearly 20% and 35% contribution margin in parts and service, respectively.
To be a successful service manager today requires more skill than yesteryear, when dealerships elevated their best wrench-turners or resident gearheads. Mechanical inclination helps, but a top service manager today must possess other skills as well. Like an air traffic controller, they must direct the technicians to the customers who truly deserve the priority. And as a psychologist, the service manager must listen and respond to what the customers and technicians alike are — and are not — saying.
There’s a card on Jaime Smith’s desk that reads, “With appreciation for everything you do to help people reach important goals. HR is about maintaining a healthy working atmosphere, but most of all it’s about helping people succeed, good times and bad.” These words summarize the daily mantra of Birkey’s Farm Store’s human resources manager.
Mike Robling’s responsibilities as the company’s parts assets manager appear straightforward enough: order the parts the stores need in a timely manner so they have ‘em when they need ‘em. Make sure they’re not carrying too much in parts inventory, but enough so that Birkey’s takes full advantage of the discounts and terms offered by Case IH.
While GPS and other precision technologies have made farming a lot easier, it’s also made farming a lot more difficult. It’s great when it’s working. But when it isn’t, it leads to a whole lot of frustration for the farmers that Darin Kennelly is trying to help.
Spend time with Mike Hedge at his office in Rantoul, Ill., and terms like number cruncher, prognosticator, teacher, purser, and analyst all come to mind. And when it comes to the subject of balance sheet management, “evangelist” is also a fitting word. As CFO & Treasurer of a $240 million company, Hedge must manage all the details yet remain at a 50,000-foot view to pilot the finances of a growing company.
For all but 3 or 4 days a month, Mark Foster is on the road tending to the business of the 11 ag dealership operations. Each of the managers report directly to him.
If your business causes you to toss and turn on occasion, you're no different than the Birkey's Farm Store managers. Here are their biggest causes of insomnia.
An effective parts department, says Todd Lippens, can pinpoint a customer’s needs even when they’re too hurried to provide good information. “With cell phones today, farmers pick up and call immediately, even before thinking,” he says. At the Polo store, more than half of his store’s part transactions are handled by phone.
As general manager of the Gibson City store, Mike Carley (who is also an owner) is responsible for coming up with the right blend of product, salesmanship, market knowledge, customer service and leadership that will produce profitability for the dealership. When he arrives early each morning, in the unlikely event that the bottom line isn’t already on his mind, he’ll quickly be reminded of it.
In the mid-1980s, the Case Construction Equipment division was losing a dealer in Champaign, Ill. To fill the gap, Case asked Birkey’s Farm Store to pick up the region’s sales contract. The timing was right, as the collapse of the farm market had the dealership interested in finding ways to diversify its business.
In this episode we look at the potential impact Hurricanes Helene and Milton will have on ag production as well as the dealers and manufacturers in the impacted region.
Built on 90 years of expertise, Yetter Farm Equipment leads the agriculture industry in designing effective and innovative equipment for residue management, seedbed preparation, precision fertilizer placement, harvest attachments, strip-tillage, and more.
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