COMPANY PROFILE
Doubleday Group celebrate 30 years as a main John Deere Dealer s the Doubleday Group celebrates 30 years as a John Deere main dealer we take a look at the history of the company and share the future plans of the ever expanding family run business. For the Doubleday Group it was the decision of the company founder, John Doubleday, to buy the local blacksmithʼs business in Holbeach St Johns, Lincolnshire that set the ball rolling. Mr Doubleday, who farmed about 5 miles south of the town of Holbeach, took over the blacksmithʼs when the blacksmith retired in 1970. John Doubleday then began designing and building his own cultivator – the Doubleday special – based on the experience of what he needed for his own farm.
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New building As the cultivator business grew, the Holbeach St Johns based blacksmiths premises became too small to cope so in 1973 a new building was erected just outside the village where the head office is still based today. In 1974 John became a sub-dealer for Ford tractors, the family farm had traditionally used Fordʼs and it didnʼt take much to get him selling new tractors. However, the experience of retailing Fordʼs did not work as smoothly as John would have liked with issues of delivery delays of tractors, costing the business deals. By the early 1980ʼs Johnʼs gripes had reached Ford but so too had they been picked up by John Deere. In May 1982 the Doubleday family were approached by John Deereʼs area manager, in just a matter of weeks terms had been agreed and on 16 June 1982 John signed the papers to become a main John Deere dealer. An opportunity for Doubledayʼs to grow again came in 1988 when the firm took over neighbouring John Deere dealer Bourne Tractors. Situated about 20 miles south-west of Holbeach, the new business was a perfect fit with the Doubleday operation and was poised for growth. The business was initially based in the village of Dyke however they rapidly outgrew the original premises and in 2007 they re-located to new modern facilities just outside of Bourne. The next major development for the Doubleday Group came in 1999 when the firm expanded eastwards into Norfolk by taking over Evergreen Tractors at Wiggenhall St Germans, near Kings
Lynn. Roy Pickett, Parts & Service manager of Doubleday Kings Lynn says ʻthe business has grown rapidly since the takeover by the Doubleday Group, investments have been made in all aspects of the business, most recently with the refurbishment of the showroom from a dated agricultural stores to now a much more pleasant and welcoming shop, improving the overall customer experience and providing a much wider variety of productsʼ.
Franchises The Doubleday Group has built a strong offering of machinery franchises that it sells alongside John Deere. Being based in a strong arable area, the firm offers cultivation equipment from Vaderstad, Gregoire Besson, and Maschio as well as local firm Cousins of Emneth. Trailers are also supplied from another local company, Boston-based Larrington Trailers, while thereʼs also general farm machinery supplied from KRM, Spearhead, Shelbourne Reynolds, SCH Supplies and Lynx Engineering. Lynx supplies the Zuidberg range of front
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COMPANY PROFILE linkage and pto systems. ʻWe have a very strong association with the Doubleday Group,ʼ said the companyʼs South Eastern Area Manager, Jim Drury. ʻFarmers are keen to maximise productivity from tractors, increasing output and saving fuel, and the front linkage allows more operations to be carried out in a single pass, and also makes the most of the power available. The area served by the Doubleday Group includes many vegetable and potato growers, for whom our systems offer significant benefits and we can supply linkages to fit the full-range of tractor sizes, including new as well as older models. We supply them to fit the John Deere rubber-tracked crawlers too.ʼ Jim said the company will have been supplying front linkages for 21 years this year, and that some 20-25 percent of buyers now specify front pto too.
Success The Doubleday Group has enjoyed considerable success with Vaderstad and in 2010 the firm was rewarded with a larger territory for the brand. It now covers the whole of Lincolnshire for the Swedish company and has even established a dedicated Vaderstad parts outlet near Alford to meet the needs of the customers in the north-east of the county. Vaderstad Territory Sales Manager Nick Tinker commented ʻthe Doubleday Group look after a prime area for implements and the other franchises held by the group compliment our products. We offer implements from 3.0m-8.0m working widths so we can offer something to suit most farmers in the area, whether they are operating on plough-based, min-till or direct-drilling cultivation regimes, and for the sugar beet
producers tooʼ. In 2012 John Deere offered the Doubleday group the opportunity to expand its area north and is therefore going to be opening a new purpose built depot later this year at Swineshead near Boston. The 20,000ft² new build will comprise of a modern parts department and retail area along with a 15 bay fully equipped service workshop with state of the art facilities. The building contract has been successfully won by the Lindum Group, a Lincolnshire based company and works are planned to begin later this month with a completion date of October 2013.
Further expansion Furthermore in January 2013 the Doubleday Group were once again approached by John Deere to further expand its area into north Lincolnshire and a parts and service outlet is to be opened in the north east of the county to support this expansion.
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DOUBLEDAY BOURNE Lodge Farm, Spalding Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 0AU 01778 424500
DOUBLEDAY HOLBEACH Old Fendyke, Holbeach St Johns, Spalding, Lincolnshire PE12 8SQ 01406 540261
DOUBLEDAY KINGS LYNN Lynn Road, St Germans, Kings Lynn, Norfolk PE34 3EU 01553 617666
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D L E I F E H IN T
COMPANY PROFILE A recent development for the group has been to offer customers their very own RTK network which now covers the entire Doubleday, John Deere sales and servicing area. Luke Spencer, AMS Specialist for the Doubleday Group says ʻwe recognise the growing needs and demands of our customers and are pleased to now be able to offer our customers the very best solution in high precision guidance technology. During the last ten years, precision farming solutions have become an integral part of farming practice with accuracy becoming ever more important, our RTK network will enable track repeatability in readiness for controlled traffic farmingʼ.
Renowned The Doubleday Group are also well renowned for their large stocks of good quality second hand machinery which they retail to customers throughout the United Kingdom and the world. ʻThe second hand machinery is an integral part of our business model, we have over the many years established some very good customers throughout the world and by establishing these markets we are able to offer attractive prices for customers trade-in equipment ʻ says Graham Collishaw, Director. A major factor in the Doubleday groupʼs success has been the firmʼs long established team and strong family ethos. The Holbeach St Johnʼs depot was, after all, built on the doorstep of the farm where John Doubleday was born, and both the business and the farm has remained in the familyʼs hands. The management of the Doubleday group is now in the hands of Graham Collishaw (Johnʼs son-in-law); Grahamʼs son; Ian
Doubleday-Collishaw and daughter Zoe DoubledayCollishaw. Ian manages the sales team and is actively involved in sales himself whilst Zoe manages the after-sales and marketing of the business. Grahamʼs other son Charles, manages the familyʼs 800 acre farm. We are very much a family run business and we couldnʼt run as successfully without our loyal and professional workforceʼ says Zoe Doubleday-Collishaw. ʻThere are many staff who were here when we took on the John Deere franchise and it is with no doubt that it is the teams experience, knowledge and continued commitment that have contributed to the companyʼs successʼ. In September 2012 the Doubleday Group were very pleased and proud to be awarded the ʻAEA 2012 Farm
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Machinery Dealer of the yearʼ at the Service Pro Dealer awards held in Windsor. Both Graham Collishaw and Zoe Doubleday-Collishaw attended the awards ceremony, speaking after the ceremony Zoe said ʻwe have a fantastic, dedicated team and its great their hard work has been recognised by this awardʼ. The Doubleday Group attend a great number of agricultural events and shows throughout the year including LAMMA and the Lincolnshire show as well as supporting many of the smaller shows so be sure to visit them at your local event during the year. A full list of all shows and events can be found on the Doubleday website www.doubledaygroup.co.uk.
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