LandTecnics represents McCormick in Kent
06/07/06

The full range of one of Britain’s leading tractor manufacturers – McCormick – is available throughout Kent for the first time following the appointment of LandTecnics Ltd as the company’s retail dealer for the county and part of East Sussex.

A line-up of McCormick tractors at LandTecnics’ Nettlesham premises.

For McCormick, the deal ends a frustrating five-year search for a dealer to sell and support the Doncaster-built farm tractors in the area. For LandTecnics, the appointment represents a major opportunity to expand and serve new customers in rural industries.

“Our sales territory, which was previously limited to north Kent, will be a lot bigger than before, extending throughout the county and into the eastern end of East Sussex,” explains LandTecnics managing director, David Curtis. “This is a great opportunity to develop and expand a very successful machinery retail and service business.”

When McCormick was set-up with its headquarters tractor assembly plant in Doncaster, South Yorkshire five years ago, it quickly acquired a nationwide network of retail dealers covering pretty much all of Britain. One exception was Kent, where the low population of dealers made it difficult to find a suitable outlet.

“We have a range of tractors ideally suited to the arable, livestock, fruit and horticultural enterprises that are typical of the county,” says Dave Redman, area manager. “I’m delighted that we now have a dealership of LandTecnics’ calibre representing us, providing good customer support and attracting new customers to McCormick.”

The LandTecnics operation, based at Green Farm, Nettlestead near Maidstone, was formed in 1998, three years before David Curtis bought the business. It employs 10 staff, including three trained technicians who drive to customers’ farms in fully-equipped mobile workshops.

“They are kitted out with everything our service technicians need to repair and maintain tractors and implements on-farm, ranging from laptop computers for electronic fault diagnosis to tractor-splitting rails,” explains Mr Curtis. “They investigate and fix problems in one go, which minimises the travelling involved and the time a customer’s machine is out of action.”

LandTecnics serves many different tractor users, from traditional livestock and arable farms, fruit-growing and horticultural enterprises to local authorities, drainage boards and horse owners maintaining paddocks.

“What they all have in common is a need for tractors that suit their individual requirements, in terms of size, power and features, from a reliable local dealer supplying parts and service back-up,” notes David Curtis. “In partnership with McCormick, we’ll be providing both good products and good service.”

Having started with just two tractor lines, the McCormick range now extends from the 26hp G Series mini tractors for both commercial and large domestic groundscare to the 280hp McCormick ZTX, the largest and most powerful farm tractor assembled in Britain and designed for heavy-duty operations on large arable farms.

In between come the 37hp to 99hp GM compact and F Series specialist tractors for fruit, horticultural and groundscare work, the 59hp to 136hp C-Max, CX and MC general-purpose farm tractors, and the six-cylinder engined 115hp to 200hp MTX and XTX tractors for large-scale field operations on both grass and arable farms.

David Curtis emphasises: “I’m sure farmers and other customers will come to appreciate the strengths of this mainly British-built range of tractors but, in the meantime, we’ll continue to maintain trained staff and a comprehensive stock of spares to look after the products we sold in previous years.“

That means LandTecnics continues to service and supply parts for Massey Ferguson tractors and in addition to stocking new McCormick tractors, the company can supply Classic Parts for both current and McCormick ‘heritage’ tractors built by Case-IH, International Harvester and David Brown.

The company also sells and services telescopic handlers, a wide selection of field implements and machinery for recycling waste materials such as plastics and cardboard.

As for McCormick, David Curtis notes that a lot of people have been surprised by the company’s achievements in the five years since it was formed, especially its rapid climb to the number four position in the UK tractor market.

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