New South Guildford premises to showcase John Deere Agricultural range
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New South Guildford premises to showcase John Deere Agricultural range
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Afgri Equipment had the grand opening of its new South Guildford, WA premises in September.
After moving into the premises on May 1, the 11,000 square metre facility has been transformed into a platform to showcase the full range of John Deere products for agriculture, turf, golf, construction, forestry and CCE.
Afgri is also the distributor of John Deere construction and forestry machines in Western Australia.
Afgri Equipment Australia operations director Gollie Coetzee says the new premises are the new standard that clients expect.
“We are a dealership that has reached an agreement for all the product lines John Deere supply,” Coetzee says.
“We are very proud to have accomplished this because we are still, in the southern hemisphere, the only company that has all the franchises that Deere has to offer.”
Coetzee says Afgri Equipment wants to be the market leaders and that would only be possible by showcasing the right equipment that customers would be proud to own.
“Only a few years ago, we were 79 employees and three branches and since then we have grown the business and we now have economy of scale,” he said.
“We have moved to more than 322 employees over a matter of five years.
“Without the board and the direction, we received from our board members, this could not have been accomplished.”
Afgri Equipment Australia is part of the Afgri Holdings Group network, a company that has a footprint in 14 countries around the world.
Afgri Holdings Group chief executive officer Chris Venter says he is excited to further invest in Australia and the latest venture was a great opportunity.
“If you stand still, you are going backwards,” Venter says.
“We can see the team has done really well and can see things grow.”
Afgri Equipment Australia chairman Patrick Roux says the new facility is “just the tips of the ears of the hippo” in terms of the company’s continued investment plans.
“If you touch that facility, it makes people believe in it,” Roux says.
“We believe in Western Australia and we believe in the future of agriculture and construction in Western Australia, so we need to show our customers that we are going to create a better experience for them by reinvesting.
“We have never taken a cent out of WA – we have reinvested everything in WA and we are going to continue to reinvest so that our customers get a better and better experience.
“It’s staff, it’s infrastructure, it’s tooling, it’s technology, it’s a lot of development that we need to fund, and we are glad to do it.”
John Deere senior vice president marketing agricultural – ag & turf division John Lagemann adds that the opening of the new premises in South Guildford was a significant milestone for the Western Australian farming community.
“We have been partnering with Afgri since 1962 and if you do the math, that means we have been a partner with Afgri for a third of the history of John Deere – so we go back a long way,” Lagemann says.
“When it comes to investment, you look at the number of investments they have made in Western Australia – the facilities, in their employees and technicians and in technology… they are investing for the future.”