XtraBlatt Issue 02-2020

PARTNER
Really important here, he cautions, is
continuity in performance and quality.
“Naturally, good machinery brands play an
important role. But conclusive for farmers
and contractors is that we, as a dealership,
provide optimal solutions for their work requirements,
and answers to their problems.
These concern machinery just as much as
service, advice, financing and other aspects.
For example, this is why I see our sales staff
not as classic salesmen and saleswomen
but instead as advisers of equal standing
– or, to exaggerate a little, as buyers for
the customers who, after all, can only be
sustainably satisfied by solutions offering
exactly what is required. This is our greatest
capital. Under which of our companies this
takes place, is of secondary importance. The
main thing is, the customers come to us.”
Abemec managing
director Hans Quint (r)
and Jeroen Manders,
manager of the new
sales branch at Beek
en Donk, are both
delighted with the
new building and its
boost for sales and
service.
KRONE MUSEUM
“NOW IT’S
REALLY GOOD.”
BIG SERVICE
The importance of service in this overall
concept can be seen from staffing proportions.
From the holding’s current 280
employees, a good 150 are in the workshops,
a further 25 especially employed in
the spare parts sector, altogether 175. Here
too, however, specialisation is ever-stronger
in this sector. “Particularly with the highly
complex harvesting machines such as the
BiG line from Krone, extensive know-how is
expected from our mechatronics engineers.
Only so can technical problems be solved in
the shortest time.”
Sums well over the six-figure mark are
annually invested, alone for the schooling
sessions and further-training of his team.
Such investment is a must, emphasises
Hans Quint. “As specialised company, we
play a key function between manufacturer
and customer. This only works when there’s
far-reaching specialisation amongst our
staff members.” For Krone, this means a
total nine mechatronics engineers schooled
as intensively as possible in the respective
products. They become, one can say, the
Krone masters within the Abemec service
team.
Incidentally, this in no way infers that the
other 140 colleagues cannot be employed
in servicing and repairing the machinery
from Spelle. Certainly, the Krone presence in
the regions is impressive. Hans Quint points
out Abemec currently services 250 BiG line
machines including 60 forage harvesters, 20
self-propelled mowers and 130 large square
balers. “If machines such as these break
down during the season, ‘the house starts
burning’. Competent help is needed as fast
as possible. In very complicated cases this
means working closely with factory service
and therein lies yet another strength: Krone
supports us in an exemplary manner also,
and in fact particularly, in service.”
TAILOR MADE
In the optimal situation, however, machinery
breakdowns do not happen during
the season. To ensure this remains so, the
service team has for a long time made
every effort in the discipline “preventative
maintenance”. Here, standards from other
engineering branches, e.g. the commercial
vehicle branch, have time and again been
successfully adapted for farm machinery
by his service people and, adds Hans Quint,
often substantially earlier than others in the
dealership scene. Belonging here are also
maintenance and service agreements with
customers. “It’s very important that we do
not try to sell an inflexible maintenance
package deal from an individual manufacturer.
Instead, we should apply our own
concepts and thereby follow the wishes of,
or possibilities for, the customers as far as
absolutely possible”, explains the managing
director.
With this strategy of tailor-made agreements,
he sees the company well equipped
for rapid structural change. In the south of
the Netherlands up to 2025, reckons Hans
Quint, something like one third of existing
farms will have given up business and the
remainder expanded greatly. Additionally,
electronics and digitalisation will increasingly
dominate. “This creates completely
new challenges for us in customer advice
and product service. However, with still
more emphasis on specialisation we aim
to meet all these needs – as said, with tailor
made solutions.” «
After some two years’ work, the Krone Museum is now
completely redesigned. For Walter Krone, as manager of the
working group involved, the project has been something very
dear to his heart – and its completion the crowning culmination
of his activities within the company.
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