John Deere the agricultural giant, prominently known for its green machines, announced in April 2021 the decision to bring its construction and forestry product line back under their wing for its Africa Middle East branch.
This expansion marks the first time that the John Deere construction products are sold under the John Deere name in 18 countries across Africa. John Deere is taking full control of the marketing and support of its own branded construction products.
“We have a deep-rooted presence in Africa in the agriculture market, and we know construction customers in these markets are eager for access to the John Deere brand and its many advantages,” says Griffiths Makgate, Sales Manager, John Deere Construction & Forestry, John Deere Africa Middle East.
“John Deere and their dealers are excited and committed to serve their extended customer base. John Deere plans to expand its construction lineup to 18 countries across Southern and Western Africa. These countries include: South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Sudan.
“This expansion provides an opportunity for us to increase our global footprint in the construction industry as we build on our existing presence in Africa and deliver our product portfolio under the John Deere brand for the first time to these key markets,” says Jaco Beyers, Managing Director for John Deere Africa Middle East. “As we move into these new countries, we are delivering on what customers expect from the John Deere brand.”
AFGRI Equipment, Mascor Corporation and Senwes Equipment are the first three dealers announced that will be at the forefront to serve the Southern African market. These are household names in the farming community and will now also be delivering dedicated sales and services to the construction and forestry customer.
“Our approach is to leverage the John Deere brand and product power with the established and highly reputable AFGRI Equipment customer focus and footprint in Southern Africa,” says Pieter Nel, C&F Business Leader for AFGRI Equipment. “We aim to not try and replicate, but to offer unique, innovative, and exciting value propositions to customers.”
Each dealer has developed dedicated personnel and resources to ensure a focus on these unique and critical customer segments.
“We are focused on customer service. This is not a department, but an attitude backed up with the necessary skills and resources,” adds Bill Comins, CEO of Mascor. “We are ready to dig in and get our hands dirty.”
Support and service
Each piece of John Deere construction and forestry equipment will be supported and serviced by highly trained and certified equipment technicians who are in turn supported by a network of global and regional parts distribution centers. All dedicated construction and forestry dealers have received the necessary certified John Deere training. In April 2021, five days were dedicated to operator training for John Deere staff and their dealers. Motorists might have noticed these machines operating during the day next to the R21 between Pretoria and Kempton Park and at night they were on display as a live billboard for passerby to admire.
John Deere and their dealers understand that downtime is not an option when it comes to a farmers operations. This mindset will be of a great advantage for their new customer base. Dealers are equipped to service machines at their dealer outlets, but in order to provide the quickest and best solution in order to decrease the waiting period of machines that have broken down onsite, dealer technicians are furnished with fully equipped service vehicles. Dealer outlets manage their parts inventory on a daily basis in order to avoid not being able to provide a customer with a part.
A tremendous benefit that a John Deere customer has is the surety that parts availability. In 2010 John Deere erected a 20 000 m2 regional parts distribution center in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. John Deere understands the importance of uptime and reliability, hence their decision to have a dedicated parts distribution center that is in close proximity of OR Tambo International Airport. This reduces lead time when parts need to be flown up into Africa.
Expansion of product line
This expansion to their product line includes backhoe loaders, excavators, wheel loaders, motor graders, and crawler dozers. A full range of products and advanced services will also be offered to forestry customers. Product offerings include skidders, feller bunchers, tracked harvesters, and forwarders.
Managing Director for Senwes Equipment, Ferdie Pieterse, commented on the expansive product offering and the John Deere brand reputation for quality: “It provides us with the opportunity to build on the renowned product quality and performance, exceptional customer support and innovative equipment technologies.”
John Deere’s purpose is to provide solutions to customers through mechanisation, technology and finance offerings. Leveraging the same technology, radio frequencies, and approvals as on the agricultural equipment, John Deere is ready to launch applicable precision technology on the construction equipment.
Tailor-made financial solutions
Apart from the hard iron and remarkable technology these machines are equipped with, John Deere helps with flexible, tailor-made financial solutions to customers as well. “We want to offer solutions on all business platforms, therefore we’re launching a separate and tailor-made John Deere Financial solution for construction and forestry equipment,” adds Antois van der Westhuizen, Managing Director for John Deere Financial in Africa.
This marks a lifelong dream for John Deere Africa Middle East to bring the construction brand to their market. With this new addition, they will be able to build, clothe, feed and shelter Africa.
About John Deere
Deere & Company (www.JohnDeere.com) is a world leader in providing advanced products, technology and services for customers whose work is revolutionising agriculture and construction – those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich and build upon the land to meet the world's increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and infrastructure.
