Tim Adcock of Adcock Agri Ltd has assembled a team of experienced agricultural technicians at his base in Rayleigh to develop a business that he started on his own as a ‘man in a van’ repairing tractors and farm machinery of all makes.
Today, he employs technicians Mitch Hallett, who joined the business in 2014, and Greg Sears, who has been with the company a year. Phil Gronland has recently joined them to handle the parts side of the business and develop new machine sales.
“Having established a good reputation with farmers locally for servicing, repairs and sourcing of competitively-priced parts, it’s a logical step to further develop the business by moving into sales,” says Tim Adcock.
“We took on the local agency for Dieci telehandlers last year and now we’re all very excited to be involved with Argo Tractors and their McCormick products.”
Ben Agar, sales director for Argo Tractors in the UK and Ireland, is realistic about the competitive market in Essex but is confident this new McCormick dealer will make positive progress.
“This is a young, driven team in a business that has justifiably earned a fantastic reputation for the service they provide to local farms needing machinery attended to as quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively as possible,” he said.
“That’s a tremendous foundation on which to build the new tractor and machinery sales side of the business, so we’re delighted that Tim and his team will be relaunching McCormick throughout Essex.”
The two parties first got to know each other at the LAMMA show in January this year, where Argo Tractors put on its biggest and most professional display of products – in part with a view to attracting the attention of prospective dealers.
Managing director Adrian Winnett said: “We’re keen to recruit new dealers in areas where we’re not actively represented and to expand our network of independent dealers who supply our products and support them with parts, routine servicing and repairs – something that Adcock Agri Ltd is very well placed to do.”
Although customer machines can be brought in to the company’s workshop when significant repairs are needed, mostly they are sorted out on-farm, using three well-stocked service vans to ensure the technicians have the tools and parts they need.
“Because we’re all technically-minded and have between us carried out hundreds of repairs, we can usually diagnose the likely cause of problems over the ‘phone and take the necessary parts for a first-time fix,” says Tim Adcock
“That’s good for us, because it makes efficient use of our time and – more importantly – good for our customers because it gets their machines working again as quickly as possible.”
He hopes this assured back-up expertise will underpin farmers’ confidence in buying a McCormick tractor when they next need a replacement.
“We’re in a predominantly arable farming area, so the new McCormick X7 Series tractors from 140hp to 225hp and the X8 Series, which covers 264hp to 310hp, are the most relevant products,” says Tim.
“But the McCormick line-up caters for every requirement from 43hp compacts to the 310hp heavy-weights and everything in between.
“There is no doubt that today’s range of McCormick tractors, with their proven and robust components, are as good as any other brand; from high-end precision farming applications to traditional loader tractors, McCormick has it all and we’re confident of proving this in on-farm demonstrations.”
