Brrrrrr! Its feeling increasingly wintery out there! But it’s great to see the recent rain has brought some relief to a few of the drier areas of the country. The ground temperatures are probably at a point now that the grass has come to a halt, and we are seeing more and more wagons and bale feeders head out of our dealership gates to earn their keep on farm. The way this year has gone though, we feel like it won’t feel like long at all and we will all be back to enjoying some sunshine and the first cuts of grass will be getting done.
This month the finals for the NZ Dairy Industry Awards were held at Coronet Peak in Queenstown where we are proud to share that Paul & Sarah Koopal (brother and sister in-law of our very own Mark Koopal, Rotorua Service Manager) took home third in the ‘Share Farmer of the Year’ category after winning ‘Share Farmer of the Year’ for the Central Plateau region. Very cool and well deserved, congratulations team!
Here’s the link to the NZDIA website if you would like to see the rest of the results.
https://www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz/regional-results/
Regional Results | New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards
Find the winners, runners-up and third place award recipients for each of the 11 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards regional titles.
www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz
To celebrate becoming a dealer for the awesome range of SP Tools products, right now if you book in for a WINTER SERVICE, or grab the parts you need for your baler, mower, rake or tedder before July 31st and mention our ‘WINTER SERVICE PROMO’ and you will go in the draw to win one of FOUR $250.00 SP Tools vouchers to spend at your local Piako or Matamata Tractors branch.
2016, FRONT LINKAGE AND PTO, 4 ELECTRIC REMOTES, VERY TIDY, 6082 HOURS, GOOD RUBBER ALL ROUND.
After more than 50 years of representation in New Zealand by Tulloch Farm Machines, Krone is now distributed by Kubota New Zealand. What does this mean for Krone? and what does this mean for this very important brand within the Piako Tractors network?
Firstly, lets knock it right on the head. Piako Tractors and Matamata Tractors & Machinery are still very much Krone dealers, the brand is well loved in house and there is a strong partnership that has developed over many years, not only with the local representation but also directly with the Krone factory. So that’s exciting!
But what else does this changing of the guard mean? Well, we have been very grateful over the years to receive amazing, local and very personal support from Tulloch Farm Machines and in particular John Tulloch. The great news is that for the time being John will remain involved with the brand as will many other original staff members. This local knowledge and history is being combined with a fantastic team from Kubota NZ (KNZ) who have a very diverse skill set and a high level of enthusiasm to see the Krone brand grow in New Zealand.
Over the past few months since the official transition in March, we have been able to meet with many of the team members that will be supporting us moving forward and feel very comfortable with how its looking… our main person for service and technical support even lives in the Hawkes Bay region, which we assume means we will have plenty of free bottles of top quality wine to pass on to our growing base of Krone customers! I hope he reads this.
Obviously, Kubota being a huge global brand with many facets to its business gives the Krone brand in NZ some serious horsepower, be prepared to see a lot more green and yellow around in both the physical stock and in a brand presence sense. I’m sure this will mean that during the season we will have more stock availability, and more models to supply if a mower has an unplanned encounter with a water trough for instance, mid harvest.
Now one thing I’m sure we can all agree on is that particularly with hay and harvest machinery, parts and technical support are absolutely crucial to a brand keeping its place on farm or in a contractor’s yard. The Tulloch team have always had impeccable support, big shoes for the KNZ team to fill no doubt, but so far during our early interactions with the local team, we are more than confident that we will continue to get the high level of local support that we have become accustomed to. Further to this, KNZ have been very well known in the industry for having an excellent availability of parts in country and we are sure this will translate to the Krone parts. So again, we are feeling very positive about the future.
On the product front, with the larger corporate machine behind the curtain I personally think that this will open some doors for some new products to enter the NZ market that we may not have seen before. Hopefully some more opportunity to test and demonstrate too, it would be great to give Kiwi farmers an opportunity to see more from the huge German manufacturer.
Krone themselves are a real force to be reckoned with, last year alone the company turned over 3.2billion Euro across the various divisions that make up the companies’ portfolio, the Agricultural products being a real cornerstone to what the Krone Group is all about.
The company now has in excess of 6000 employees and is present in 74 countries globally. While New Zealand may be one of their smaller revenue streams due to our low population, there is no doubt that the opinion and advice that they seek from Kiwi farmers and retailers alike is very important to their product design process. We all know how tough our conditions can be and Krone, like many others like to use us as a testing ground and sounding board.
So long story short, the product range is vast and very well manufactured. The injection of security from the global giant backing the Krone brand in New Zealand can only be a good thing. And, most importantly, much of the knowledge and love for the brand that has been developed under the Tulloch name for the past 54 years in New Zealand comes with the transition. So, for us as retailers and for you as consumers we can all be confident in making the Krone brand more present in our day to day lives this harvest.
On behalf of Piako Tractors we would like to take this opportunity to extend our appreciation to John Tulloch and his team for the amazing service and friendship over the past years working together with the Krone brand. John and his late father Graeme have been absolutely crucial to the New Zealand agricultural sector over the years, and we look forward to continuing this relationship moving forward, not only with Johns continued involvement with Krone but also with the rest of the product portfolio we represent from Tulloch Farm Machines.
John Tulloch of Tulloch Farm Machines.
To learn more about the Krone range of products or delve into their very interesting history and business operations head to the website linked below or chat with the team in your local Piako Tractors branch.
We love seeing what you all get up to during your days, and having you being a part of our business, so if you have any great stories or photos to share, please make sure you send them through to us and don’t forget to give us a follow!!!
Either text it through to the number below, send us a message on Facebook or Instagram or email us at:
marketing@piako.co.nz
PH - 021985142