A 28-year old agricultural engineer who used to manage tractor testing and development at the McCormick tractor plant in Doncaster has launched a new business supplying the machines to farmers in South Yorkshire, north-west Lincolnshire and northern Nottinghamshire.
Dave Moore joined the factory operation from Harper Adams University College in Shropshire where he completed a degree course in Design & Development for Offroad Vehicles.
"I enjoyed my time at the factory and got to know the products inside out, so I know how to tackle the most critical repairs," he says. "But when production was transferred to Italy in 2007, I thought I wouldn’t have anything more to do with them."
That has all changed since the launch of Moore Farm Services Ltd, a new agricultural equipment dealership that supplies a range of equipment for farmers. He represents distributor AgriArgo UK across a McCormick tractors sales and service territory that extends from Newark northwards beyond Doncaster and between Sheffield and Lincoln.
His base is a new building on the industrial estate in Harworth, a few miles south of Doncaster, just a few hundred metres from where AgriArgo UK itself is located. The Moore Farm Services building has been kitted out with a workshop for servicing and repairing tractors, and a showroom for tools, parts, service consumables such as oil and filters, and McCormick clothing, toys and other merchandise.
"It’s been hard work getting everything together but now the business is up and running, and I’ve taken the first orders for new tractors, it’s all very exciting," says Dave. "I just need to show customers what I can do by combining my farming experience and practical engineering skills."
Dave was brought up on a family farm at Selby, Yorkshire before studying for a National Diploma in Agricultural Engineering at Bishop Burton College, Beverley, East Yorkshire. After leaving the tractor plant, he moved to Cummins Turbo Technology in Huddersfield where he designed engineering test cells until his post was declared redundant due to cut backs.
He then spent time working for McCormick distributor AgriArgo UK carrying out technical upgrades on tractors at dealer premises across the country. This not only gave him more hands-on experience but is partly what inspired the new business.
"Customer service is the key to running a successful dealership – that and having the right products to sell," says Dave Moore. "Tractors are critical machines to a farming operation, so servicing has to be efficient and repairs carried out effectively, but also as soon as possible to get the machine working again."
In addition to the McCormick tractors – which cover power outputs from just 22hp to more than 220hp for all sorts of applications – his new business also supplies Granit tools and parts, and has franchises for Twose of Tiverton equipment, Imants powered cultivators, Ino flail mowers and Rozmital grass rakes and tedders from Willow Farm Machinery.
The company also represents TerraTech, a new manufacturer of heavy-duty field cultivators based at Little Weighton, East Yorkshire.
"Things are already going so well that I’ve just appointed Stuart Cox as a full-time technician to join David Kent in the workshop," says Dave. "And I should soon have an experienced salesman on the road helping farmers select the best models from the McCormick range for their needs."
