BAGMA Cover: Battlefield Machinery
As part of my ongoing partnership with BAGMA, I visited Battlefield Machinery to interview the director Richard Evans.
1. Firstly, can you tell me a bit about you and your career path that got you here?
Richard Evans, 38 years old from Shropshire, is the Managing Director of Battlefield Machinery, a Kubota Agriculture and Groundcare dealer with one depot at Shrewsbury. With business now in its fifth year of trading and an admirable reputation with customers, we wanted to find out more.
Richard grew up on a family farm with two brothers and a sister. With a passion for agriculture and specifically mechanics, Richard decided this was the career path he wanted to take.
To gain some additional experience, he began a Saturday job with some independent fitters working on Massey Ferguson and JCB product. Once finishing school Richard went on to complete an apprenticeship with dealership Burgess’. Fast forward a few years of mechanics and demonstrating with Burgess’, Richard moved on to Ravenhill’s, a New Holland dealership with a depot in Shrewsbury, the very depot that is now home to Battlefield Machinery.
Starting with mechanics and quickly moving onto an area sales role, Richard felt that sales was where he thrived. With a good knowledge of the area from his upbringing and being an active member of his Young Farmers club, Richard had already built good relationships with the local farming community, providing a great foundation for sales success.
Ravenhill’s specialised in New Holland agriculture as well as Kverneland machinery, which developed into a brand Richard particularly liked. When the opportunity arose to join the Kverneland UK team a few years later, he went for it. Now with a title of Key Account Manager and looking after eight dealerships, the job required plenty of hard work, nothing that fazed Richard.
“I enjoyed the role very much. They were such a great company to work for, very fair with their management but also expected us to work hard. I got to travel abroad and meet lots of different people and it really was a high point for my career.”
In 2016 news began to travel of Ravenhill’s making the decision to sell two of its depots, one being the Shrewsbury location that he once worked at. With an exciting opportunity presenting itself, Richard embarked on a plan to buy the premises and start a new dealership along with his father-in-law, Phil Poole and Ravenhill’s branch manager Meyrick Pope. Battlefield Machinery was then born, specialising in Kubota Agriculture, Kverneland, Browns and Marshall.
“Meyrick and I knew the importance of keeping as many of the talented staff as possible. We were lucky that nine of the nineteen staff members stayed on to work with us as Battlefield Machinery. That was across various departments; service, parts and administration.”
2. How has 2021 been for Battlefield Machinery?
“This year has seen a few changes. We have had a change in ownership with Meyrick selling his share of the business but we are lucky he has still decided to carry on working as a Parts Advisor. He has many years of knowledge in this department so it is great to still have him on board. We are also delighted to have added the Kubota Groundcare franchise to our portfolio in March which will open up a lot of business for us within our area. With that change we have also employed a full-time groundcare salesman who comes with great experience of the Kubota and Baroness product so we are very excited about that.”
3. What area does Battlefield machinery cover?
“Our base is here in Shrewsbury covering the surrounding area. It is a little difficult to explain because our area for Kubota and Kverneland differs. Shropshire is certainly a densely populated area when it comes to machinery dealers. The last time I counted there was 16 dealers, 20 depots and 45 sales reps out on the road, it is certainly competitive but there is also enough business in the area for all of us. Our closest Kubota dealer is just 15 miles up the road and we have a good working relationship, you have to! Shropshire is so varied when it comes to agricultural customers; arable, dairy, vegetable growers even herb growers so that opens up a lot of doors to the product we can go out and sell. There is certainly plenty of scope for us to grow our groundcare division as well, with lots of golf courses, estates and private schools, we are looking forward to dealing with a different type of customer with this range of products.”
4. What is your favourite part of the business?
“At the moment I am acting Service Manager due to some personnel changes so that has certainly been busy but I do enjoy it. I find I get a real buzz from satisfying the customers needs but also exceeding their expectations when it comes to service. From the beginning we have prided ourselves on providing good, old-fashioned back up. We have found over the years people buy from us purely based on our service so it is a very important part of our business and needs to be right.
I wouldn’t say I am the most accomplished mechanic…maybe that’s why sales was more for me…but we have really enjoyed making bespoke products for customers to combat problems they find on their farm. Things like our Battle Brushes and scraper frames for tractors, its great to come up with a solution for their needs.”
“The passion to deliver five-star service definitely comes from working for companies who have always been renown for good service. It has been part of my work ethic my whole career with different roles and so it is an important part of this business, because ultimately customer service should be 5-star! We want to provide our customers with good service in all departments; sales, back up, parts, warranty!”
5. What is your least favourite part?
Definitely paperwork and general admin, it really isn’t my thing!
6. You have a very close-knit team here, how have you achieved this?
“This is something that has always been important, right from the beginning. Meyrick and myself knew how important it was to have a strong team. We stand by the phrase; treat people how you would like to be treated yourself.”
“I understand that everyone needs their downtime and with COVID and lockdowns, it has become more apparent the importance of a work life balance. It is a balance to achieve good back up whilst ensuring everyone gets enough time away. If there is a breakdown on a weekend and it is easier for me to go, then I will. It is all about teamwork and I am proud we have a great team here.”
“I do little things like Doughnut Friday and teambuilding outside of work, which has been hard because of COVID. We recently went Axe throwing in Shrewsbury which was fantastic, it has been great to get back out doing these things with the team.”
7. How is Brexit affecting machinery and parts supply?
“I don’t think Brexit has had any huge effects for us when it comes to supply. Some things may have taken a bit longer because of additional paperwork at borders but for us its more about transport issues. We have found machines and parts coming from Europe aren’t too bad but machines that are coming from Japan and the USA are taking a lot longer. We are lucky that Kubota and Kverneland have parts stock in the UK and if they don’t have what we require then they would usually come from France, so the longest we wait would be a few days. When furlough was introduced in the UK, supply definitely got worse as I imagine the general public were purchasing lots of products like BBQ’s and bikes etc meaning the demand was too high and the process became a lot slower.”
8. Did that effect your sales?
“Being a small dealer, we struggle to stock everything that we would like to, financially we cannot stock the volume of machines like other dealers. There is just the two of us on the agriculture side of sales, myself and Grant Williams and we both like to get the product in front of the customer. We are very tactile I suppose, being able to show them how it works and really sell it on its features. COVID meant that we couldn’t do this like we used to so that was tough for us and meant we really had to adapt our sales technique. One thing we have always been passionate about doing is holding customer events and evenings at the depot and we are enjoying being able to do these again. We are very lucky that our customers engage and support with these events as well as our manufacturer representatives, it is something that enables us to offer in depth introductions to the products and it works really well for us.”
9. Have you been affected dramatically by COVID?
“In the beginning it was very frustrating because we couldn’t get any information on whether we were key workers. After speaking with our Member of Parliament, they confirmed we were and that we were able to continue to operate. Before the restrictions we had started putting safety precautions in place and we made these even stricter as time went on. We had a gate across our stores entrance and a bell so that people could collect parts. We also offered a parts delivery service for people which was very popular. We had some of the best few months with wearing metal because people were worried about supply issues so they stocked up.”
“All our staff had PPE to go out with and we were strict with distancing within the depot. Anyone that could work from home did and we just tried to be as sensible as possible.”
“Some local dealers completely shut and that actually provided us with additional business. We picked up customers, especially in our ground care division.”
10. How do you rate the level of support available to small businesses during the coronavirus crisis?
“We weren’t eligible for any government support but I did apply for a retail grant. Half of our business comes through the front door so we were losing out on sales in our stores. I was told that Agricultural supply shops were omitted from the list which was frustrating especially when I had heard other dealers had received the grant. We did furlough our apprentices purely because it wasn’t fair to expect them and our engineers to work so closely when they didn’t know where each other had been. They were furloughed for 5 weeks and then we needed them back because work got so busy and I suppose we had got even more confident in our safety measures by that point.”
11. Is there anything you learned about business from the onset of the pandemic?
“We definitely showed commitment to our customers to stay open and that went a long way. We found that our commitment to them was reciprocated in them supporting us during the pandemic as well. For us, it wasn’t a question, if we could continue to operate, we would! We like to think we are partners of our customers business, so we want to be on hand to support them, whatever the circumstances.”
12. What are your thoughts on recruitment in the industry and the drive to get young people into the industry?
“We need to drive young people into the industry and it is something we are proactive about. We have one apprentice who is in his third year on the Kubota Apprentice scheme. We have welcomed work experience over the years to help younger people gain skills. We have had some great people join us but we have also had some bad experiences with bad attitudes which can put me off. I sometimes struggle to understand why young people don’t have the same attitude I had when I was 16, which is to work hard and earn money.”
“The Kubota apprentice scheme has been a great programme and the facilities that the students have access to is great. The college always reports back to us which I like very much. However, I do find the success rate on apprentices is average.”
“Driving young people into our industry needs to start at school. I have had poor experiences with careers advisors who have told pupils that Agriculture isn’t a progressive industry and its nothing more than banging a hammer about. If we do not have the support of rural schools for our industry, then we are going to struggle. More understanding about the scope of careers available in our industry is definitely needed.”
13. You have been awarded GOLD Kubota dealer status and Kverneland GOLD dealer status, how have you achieved this and what does it mean to you?
“We are delighted to have been awarded both of these GOLD dealer statuses’ and it is a great recognition of the teams hard work. There are certain criteria that you have to meet in order to be able to be a GOLD dealer and they are different for Kubota and Kverneland but ultimately it is all about giving good service. Some of the processes that we have implemented in order to classify have helped our business, especially with admin.”
“We are proud that we specialise in certain franchises. For us, it is about having our key brands, focussing on them fully and being specialists when it comes to those machines.”
14. What future plans do you have?
“We want to cement what we have been doing and keep providing a good service. One of the main plans for the future is to get the ground care franchise off the ground. With our new salesman joining us and having a focus on these products will be key. I would also like to have a build a showroom for the ground care product in the near future.”
15. Can BAGMA help with any future plans?
“We are booked in to have trailer testing training with BAGMA but we haven’t been able to just yet because of COVID. We want to be able to offer this certification to customers because I firmly believe that the BAGMA trailer test is the best level of test that we can put our name to.”
16. How is it being a BAGMA member?
“We are proud members of BAGMA and feel it holds a good reputation within the industry. I have utilised many of the services as they are specific to our trade. “
17. What do you see as the main challenges moving forward? For you, and the industry as a whole…
“Staff, stock and cash! It costs to keep the same level of machine and parts stock. To sell the product we need to have it, so supply may be an issue going forward. We all know that we need good staff and finding quality people with a desire to work is an increasing challenge.”
18. You are a very busy man with the business so what do you like to do in your spare time?
“My two young boys definitely keep me very busy! Any time with the family is always nice when I am not in work. I also have a Peugeot 205 GTI sitting in my garage and I am desperate to get that back on the road. So, when I get some time, I would love to get started with that.”