Accolade for O’Connors
Wimmera-Mallee business O’Connors Farm Machinery has won a Dealer of the Year title at a Case IH ceremony at Uluru in central Australia.
Established at Birchip in 1964, the family-owned business now includes branches at Warracknabeal, Horsham and Shepparton in Victoria, plus Corowa, New South Wales and Bordertown in South Australia.
Employing a staff of more than 140, O’Connors won a category for dealers with three or more branches.
O’Connors’ dealer principal Mark O’Connor said the business won a category where all of the finalists would be worthy winners.
“We’re very pleased with the result. O’Connors strives to develop best practice by putting people and teams in place to promote the Case IH brand because we believe in it,” he said.
“During our 50-plus years in business we have formed a strong partnership with Case IH and by working closely with them, we’ve been able to grow stronger as a business.”
Other top performers in the category included South Australia’s Ramsey Bros and Kenway and Clark from New South Wales.
O’Connors also won an award for Case IH Parts and Service Dealer of the Year for its demonstration of excellent parts sales results, which can be attributed to good communication between their parts, service and machinery sales departments.
Case IH brand leader – ANZ, Bruce Healy, said O’Connors was a very strong dealer group.
“With multiple branches that are well presented and have excellent sales procedures in place, the potential for their future growth and success is clearly evident,” he said.
The 2016 winner of the Dealer of the Year Award for dealers with one or two branches was New South Wales’ Intersales, which has dealerships at Temora and Leeton. South Australian dealership Larwoods Ag Services was a finalist.
The Dealer of the Year results rely on an objective ranking, based on factors including finance and business management, performance in sales and marketing, parts and servicing, Advanced Farming Systems Certification and total market share.
Case IH draws on 175 years of heritage and experience in the agriculture industry, providing a powerful range of tractors, combines and balers supported by a global network.