16 minute read
COVER STORY We find out about the diverse backgrounds of the members of BAGMA’s Council
What goes on behind closed doors?
Welcome to BAGMA Council, a body of member representatives, set up to discuss the industry’s most important and pertinent issues. Here we meet the current members of the Council, as they tell us a little about themselves in their own words…
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SINCE ITS INCEPTION in 1917, BAGMA – as with most trade associations – has had a body of representative members.
The BAGMA Council, or Board of BAGMA, represents its members’ interests in all the association’s activities.
From the early beginnings, the Council of Representatives was made up of a volunteer group of members with the new members coopted on to positions over the years.
Not so long ago BAGMA had representatives in designated regions around the UK. The council was made up from the chairman of each of these areas, representing their respective regional members.
Much has changed in the last 15 years or so and the BAGMA Council is now made up from volunteers from member companies. These can be employees of a member, private owners or semi-retired and retired members who still have interests in our industry.
PRESIDENT Peter Arrand
CLAAS Eastern
I think we can all agree that the last 18 months have been very different to what we’ve all be used to, and we’ve had to adapt and change accordingly.
I’ve spent 32 years working for one company but have recently found a new home with CLAAS Eastern as the group aftersales manager.
I look back over the last 32 years when I was in my final year at school just about to take my GCSEs – the first year the exams were introduced – and I can remember all I wanted to do was be an agricultural engineer.
My father was a farmer, and this is where my interest in the industry began. I can still remember my careers teacher asking, ‘what do you want to do that for?’. How ill-informed he was, for it is an industry full of technology and opportunity. These days I try to share this knowledge and experience whenever I am given the opportunity.
My son, who is just starting the year that will end taking his GCSEs is now open to a huge wealth of information to what his next stage will be: information on further education, universities, technical colleges, apprenticeships and now T Levels.
Quality careers advice in schools has been neglected for many years but now it is on Ofsted’s agenda; schools will now be judged on this subject and how it is embedded in the curriculum.
I am currently a link governor for careers in schools. Schools are really having to get their act together, signposting and developing knowledge about the next stages in young people’s lives, explaining the options and choices which starts many years before the GCSE years.
We are a small industry that needs to fight for recognition and make ourselves heard to attract the people we need for tomorrow.
I guess I am telling you this as I have had the opportunity to work with colleges, universi-
Peter Heming
ties, academies, training providers, government departments and awarding bodies over several years and feel passionate about how we develop the talent we will require for the years to come.
We must keep our industry on everyone’s radar as much as possible.
I have been involved with BAGMA for many years and on the council for the last 10 years, having served two as its President.
The council has evolved and changed quite considerably not to mention its new ownership with the AEA, which will secure an aligned and positive future.
The team at BAGMA has always been helpful and hardworking and the council members have always found the time in their busy lives to make time for meetings and other engagements. However, I have noticed that we struggle to engage with a younger audience and hopefully this will be something we can develop in my extended two years of presidency.
VICE PRESIDENT Peter Heming
Heming Engineering Ltd.
I’m Peter and I have worked with the Heming Group since leaving school. As a relatively new member of the council, my interests are in the agriculture and construction arenas. I am passionate about quality service delivery and like my businesses to deliver the level of service I would expect to receive.
Like many of the other council members, I am keen for the agricultural industry to be attractive as a profession for the youth of today, and will be working hard to raise its profile.
I know there has been frustration in the wake of coronavirus and Brexit, with regards to supply of equipment and parts. However, I did see this coming and, as a result, I stepped up our stock levels and forward planning. Outside of work I am very busy with my farming enterprise including a campsite. I love my work and my two young children - both boys - aged nine and nearly two.
Heming Engineering has been BAGMA members for many years, and I have previously been Chairman of the Four Counties. I was honoured to be asked to join the main BAGMA Council, quickly becoming Vice President. Since joining the council, I am always willing to get involved and I will endeavour to make my mark on the future.
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Brian Sangster
Retired
I served my apprenticeship in agricultural engineering with Farm Mechanisation Ltd, part of the G Reekie Group, in Cupar, Fife.
During this time, I attended Elmwood Agricultural & Technical College, initially on a fulltime course but, leading on to day-release during my apprenticeship.
I continued my career with farm mechanisation until I took a break to teach agricultural engineering in college on the Scottish Borders, where I also took the opportunity to further develop my own career path including a spell at Jordanhill College of Education.
Returning to the G Reekie Group, I was appointed service manager at Stirling Tractors progressing to the agricultural divisional service manager before eventually talking up the group service and warranty manager’s position, covering tractors and agricultural machinery, ground care, industrial forklifts, and even included a car franchise.
Since retiring I have maintained my passion for land-based engineering having served as BAGMA President for four years. Currently, I hold the position of Immediate Past President.
Representing BAGMA I currently chair the LE-TEC management group, a position I’ve held for the last three years. I am passionate about recruitment, training and apprenticeships in our industry, and as a STEM Ambassador regularly talk in schools.
I work with RHET, Royal Highland Educational Trust, (a charity within the Royal Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland) and have assisted LANTRA Scotland in talking to careers and guidance teachers about the opportunities available in our industry. I often wonder how they can offer careers guidance and advice when they know so little about what we have to offer.
I do, however, worry about the value of our UK apprenticeships as England and the devolved nations now all focus on their own training routes and differing apprenticeships. After all, we do all service and repair the same tractors and machinery and may even work for the same employer where they have branches on different sides of the borders. Employees with different qualifications but doing the same job.
I’ve always believed BAGMA has so much to offer the dealers both in services, advice and guidance. Our greatest challenge though, is to maintain contact with our members to ensure they’re not only aware of what we have to offer but to encourage them to make use of these services. An example may be the free Legal and HR advice that may just save a member going down the wrong route with an employee dispute.
LEGAL & PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS Bob Chapman
Bavenhill Mechanics
I am Bob Chapman of Bavenhill Mechanics Co Ltd, a machinery dealer, specialising in
Airblast sprayers, renewable energy, ground and air source instals, solar and battery storage,
Pattenden Machinery Ltd, manufacturer of fruit harvesters for blackcurrants and cider apples.
I started out as an apprentice and trained for five years with RECO, before joining Bavenhill in 1978. I have held the presidency positions for both BAGMA and British Hardware Federation (BHF) – which became Bira.
I am passionate about lobbying for the small companies, helping to ensure that they get the same access to the same support, guidance and training that the big boys get.
I am not happy about the way tractor manufactures treat dealers, and I try to help keep balance in industry from blacksmiths to mighty managing directors.
BAGMA can help maintain that balance in the industry by representing big and small dealers. I like to ensure good service, and retain a reasonable margin.
CLIMMAR REPRESENTATIVE Howard Pullen
Howard Pullen Machinery Ltd.
I am Howard and at 67 I still run my own business, Howard Pullen Machinery Ltd. I mainly sell and export surplus machinery on behalf of farmers as a machinery broker based in West Sussex.
I started in the machinery business exporting used tractors to the USA in 1977 and then went on to run my own Deutz-Fahr dealership for 10 years in 1980, but when interest rates hit 18% it was unsustainable.
In 1991 I formed a new company with some of my loyal previous employees selling Renault and CLAAS and I continued as sales manager and director when CLAAS operated the business of Southern Harvesters between 1995-2015.
I took early retirement which lasted a month in October 2015, and have since been successfully running my own business from home with an annual turnover of around £1.5 million.
I have been a BAGMA member for nearly 40 years, a BAGMA President, and President of its former retail arm, Bira, from 2019 to 2021.
I still serve as a BAGMA Council member, and I have made a great number of friends and long-term contacts both in the UK and Europe.
I have enjoyed representing BAGMA at European CLIMMAR meetings and feel it is important that we can still make our voice heard in Europe because we will still have to abide by their regulations if we want to sell there.
I have believed for many years that our logical home should be with the AEA as most European dealer organisations are now; I actively promoted this idea during my time as Bira President.
The involvement of new technologies and training needs a joined-up approach with manufacturers and, going forward, this must be most the logical and efficient partnership.
Unfortunately, county meetings of BAGMA are a thing of the past but I think BAGMA Connect regional meetings should continue when it is appropriate to do so. Zoom meetings are OK but they do not provide the face-to-face networking which has been the important part of being a trade organisation and welcoming new members.
Personal contact by the BAGMA officers is essential and regional WhatsApp and social media groups would be a way to encourage participation and future ideas for a modern trade organisation.
CONNECT CHAIRMAN Andrew Walker
B&B Tractors
My name is Andrew and I work for B&B Tractors as group aftersales manager. I have been with B&B for nearly 11 years and am mainly based at our head office in Warsop, near Mansfield, but also visit our other three depots in the East Midlands regularly.
I started my career as an apprentice agricultural technician at an AGCO dealership in 1996, before a change of location gave me the opportunity to join a John Deere dealership in 1998.
I was privileged to work my way through the LTA scheme to become one of the first batch of John Deere LTA4 accredited technicians at the time, an achievement I am still proud of today.
I became service manager in 2005 which gave me my first experience in managing a team which aimed to to provide the best customer aftersales support.
In 2011 I was offered the opportunity to become group service manager at B&B Tractors. On seeing what B&B Tractors were trying to achieve, and with the chance to be a key part of the management team, I decided it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse.
On joining them I focussed on the service department at the Mansfield depot for a year, before bringing in additional management staff and developing the other depots in my group role.
In 2014 I was promoted to group aftersales manager, overseeing the parts departments along with the service department. In addition to managing aftersales my role also involves working on developing our business system and IT management across the group to make sure we have the latest technology and systems to work effectively.
I love the fact that we still deal with people face-toface and generally know all our customers and suppliers on first name terms. I think it’s great that people who work in our industry are willing to help each other and offer advice, even if they may be working with competitive brands. With the ever-changing technology and complexity of the machinery we deal with it’s
Bob Chapman
Howard Pullen
Andrew Walker
Ian Nutt
not an industry you can get bored with easily; I think it’s why the apprenticeships and career opportunities are some of the best available.
I really enjoy the opportunity to get involved in employing someone who is starting their career and seeing them develop and become an expert in their vocation. As our industry is ever-changing it means you can’t stick to doing what you have always done, which suits me as I like change and the opportunity to learn new things.
I was initially invited to attend BAGMA Connect meetings which I found were a great source of information. They were also an opportunity to keep up with industry changes and find out what other dealers were doing to develop their businesses. I found that the sharing of knowledge and experiences allowed me to apply this within our own business which was a great benefit.
Being given the opportunity to become Chairman of the BAGMA Connect Group and then a member of the Council was a great opportunity that allowed me to share my experiences in aftersales with a view to helping others dealers and the industry if I can.
As BAGMA is working on behalf of the dealer network with panels made up of dealer staff and other industry experts it gives a greater understanding of the issues faced and the reality of our industry.
It connects the dealerships and staff throughout the whole of the UK and provides a simple platform to discuss and assist with the everyday issues that we face.
The industry needs to keep working together especially on the big issues of recruitment retention and apprenticeships, but also in improved ways of doing business and supporting our customer base.
We should continue to promote and encourage the development of new and especially younger staff, so the future of our industry is secure and can grow.
COMMITTEE MEMBER Craig Footman
Chandlers Farm Equipment
I am Craig and I currently work for Chandlers Farm Equipment as a Massey Ferguson sales specialist.
I have worked in the industry for 34 years, with 30 of those at ex-Massey Ferguson-now-McCormick dealer Mark Weatherhead Ltd. I started there at the Hardwick depot as junior parts person moving on to purchasing, then aftersales manager. I was then introduced to the Isuzu brand and looked after sales, service and parts for them. From 2014 I was appointed company director for aftersales and Isuzu pickup sales. In the industry I am passionate about aftersales and customer relations, I believe this is the most important and sometimes forgotten part of the dealerships. This attitude has helped me so far in my new role in sales which is different for me, but the aftersales and customer support has been very useful for me to build relationships with end users. It’s frustrating that there is a lack of initial training supplied by some of manufacturers especially in groundscare/lawn and garden sector. All Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) forget about parts training and ongoing development training across all departments, this is something I feel needs fixing by suppliers.
When invited to join the BAGMA Council - following on from Mark Weatherhead who had supported me so well over the years and was a former BAGMA President – I jumped at the chance. It gave me the opportunity to give back some of the experience I had gained from the industry and hopefully help other BAGMA members in the process.
The support and information BAGMA give to their members and contacts into suppliers is so important and has really helped me over the years before I was on the council. However, I feel the most important thing BAGMA is doing is their work on training and apprenticeships – this will hopefully attract new energy into the trade which is very much needed.
I believe the industry dealers and manufacturers alike need to really start investing in new people in the industry. It’s something that as dealers we have all not done and we are paying the price now as we are unable to find technicians or parts people for the trade.
COMMITTEE MEMBER Ian Nutt
Sales Director for Chandlers Farm Equipment
I am Ian and I oversee all sales activity for the Fendt/ Valtra brand, in conjunction with other leading franchises. I am responsible for leading an experienced team within the Chandlers organisation, who have a wealth of experience within the industry.
Having previously worked with Lister Wilder as managing director, the agricultural business was acquired by Chandlers FE in January 2021.
The head office is based in Grantham. I am pleased to be working with an experienced team, with the responsibility of heading up two leading franchises within the industry – Fendt and Valtra.
Having started my career in agricultural engineering years ago, as a service technician for John Wilders, based in Bracknell, I then had a period within the parts department as I felt it was important to have a good understanding of all elements within a dealership.
I then moved into agricultural retail sales within John Wilder, followed by some time in agricultural retail finance. In 1982, I took up the position as branch manager at Walter Wilder Agricultural Ltd.
In 2000, the company name changed to Lister Wilder and prior to the sale of the agricultural business to Chandlers at the beginning of this year, we were operating from 10 branches in the south of England.
I would like to think I have been a strong supporter of BAGMA over the years, with a spell as Chairman of the Agricultural Committee and currently remain a council member.
