BAILEY ON BOARD
Gary Bailey - Simba's new Territory Manager
The newest arrival in the Simba sales team is Gary Bailey, who started as Territory Manager for Central England this month.
Gary (39) joins from Amazone UK, for whom he latterly covered a similar sales area to that which he will now cover for Simba Horsch.
He gained a diploma in Agriculture and Mechanised Crop Production from Rodbaston College, Staffordshire, before gaining experience working both on farms and for machinery dealers. He has worked with a wide range of top manufacturer’s equipment, both in the UK and New Zealand.
Welcoming him to the Simba team, David Holmes, said: “We were impressed with Gary’s breadth of knowledge and his strong track record of increasing the volume and value of business completed wherever he has been. We look forward to him making a significant contribution to Simba’s continued strong growth”.
Gary is equally enthusiastic about joining the company: “I am very pleased to be joining such a well respected British manufacturer. That was one of the reasons the job appealed to me. Simba makes and sells the most complete range of cultivation equipment and drills available, and I am looking forward to helping expand in future, especially in some of the areas where they are not so well established”.
LORRIES LOAD UP
Simba's lorries will certainly earn their keep!
With Simba’s production increasing so fast, we have invested in a third 44 tonne Scania lorry, and will keep all three busy all year round, as Transport Manager Rob Vickers explains:
“All the lorries will be working flat out. They can each carry half a dozen 3m X-Presses and ST Bars, a couple of the smaller SL machines or one big 7m model.
“The challenge to the transport office is to batch deliveries to make best use of the capacity in which we have invested, so we work very closely with the production office to keep things moving”.
The lorries are exclusively for use in the UK – export orders are despatched via outside contractors, and at really busy times as many as six further lorries may be hired in to help handle the company’s UK deliveries and movements as well:
“All three lorries are fully employed moving new machines out to dealers for most of the spring and summer, but they also complete two other important roles.
“They will handle all machinery going to show stands and to demonstration events like Tillage, as well as moving Simba’s own demonstration equipment between farms.
“In the winter they will switch roles again and be used to collect and deliver machines coming in for refurbishment by the After Sales and Components Division”.
TOP COVERAGE
The British press team visit the Ronneburg factory
We trust you have read the articles appearing in magazines like Farmers Weekly, Profi, Farmers Guardian and the like recently – the product of us taking a selection of leading machinery writers to visit the Horsch plants at Schwandorf and Ronneborg.
All our visitors were impressed with the modern production methods used at both plants, and the scale of production Horsch can now achieve – to serve the UK market as well as those across the rest of Europe.
Both Michael and Phillipp Horsch provided entertaining briefings on how machines start as ideas, are developed into “toys” (Michael’s word, not ours!) and then tested thoroughly on the family’s own farms. Some are rejected fairly quickly, but others show potential and are developed further and field-tested more widely:
DD press rings are proving popular in Germany
“Every single month there are new prototypes going into the field. Some of them might not last very long, but others prove themselves. Whenever we see a need for something we try to meet it, the three principles being to make machinery that is simpler, faster working or safer than what preceded it”, Michael said.
Backed by that development programme, the company is confident of building its current 100 million Euro turnover (which does not include its activities in either USA or CIS) by around 50%.
While they were impressed with the Horsch equipment, the British journalists were pleased to see a good line up of Horsch presses fitted with DD and DD Lite press rings – part of the £500,000 worth of DD rings that Simba sent to Horsch last year.
With their press sales set to increase as part of the company’s strong continuing growth, we expect to sell them a lot more this year!
POWER CUTS . . . .
Pronto DC drills don't take much pulling
Jimmie Carver, our Northern Territory Manager, certainly knows how to push the boundaries when it comes to pairing up tractors and cultivators, completing some surprising demonstrations this spring:
“In one instance we managed to pull a 6m drill with a 140hp tractor. That’s not something you would choose to do normally, but it does show how easily the new Simba Horsch drills travel, and we do have farmers in the North of England who report that 175hp “bosses” a 6m Pronto DC even on hilly ground”.
. . . AND FAR LESS FUEL
Hungry for the acres; frugal on the fuel
One of Jimmie’s customers – Neil Milligan, a contractor from Castle Douglas, in Dumfries and Galloway - reports a huge saving in fuel, and other costs, by moving from a power harrow combination drill to a 3m Pronto DC:
“The combi probably used about five litres of diesel, whereas the Pronto needs nearer three and does a better job as well. The emergence of the crops we have sown thus far this spring is excellent”.
And in an area where stones are a problem, he expects the Pronto DC to prove far more economical on spare and replacement parts, with greatly reduced downtime carrying out repairs or replacing worn parts translating into greater daily output”.
Jimmie highlights the value of the fuel saving: “I have just head quotes of around 64 pence a litre for red diesel in these parts, so a two litre saving is worth £1.28/acre”.
8M PRONTO SETS OFF
One of the first 8m Pronto DC drills we have sold has started work for KAM Farming, a share farming/contracting company based near Weymouth, Dorset.
Foreman/drill driver Greg Smith says the new drill pulls more easily than its predecessor and provides the flexibility and output they need. It is replacing a competitor’s 8m disc drill.
He expects it to cover between 5,000 and 6,000 acres/year, most of it behind their Solo, but also working on ploughing as their customer base includes an organic farm: “We are confident it will do a more consistent job and will run a lot better on our heavier ground than its predecessor”.
Among he design features he complements are running the press wheels ahead of the drilling coulters, and using a true double disc design instead of a single disc and a coulter:
“For 80% of our ground we now plan to run the Solo, drill using the Pronto DC and then roll. We are sure the drill will work in all conditions”.
HUNGARY FOR SUCCESS
Simba meets Simba
They know how to impress an audience in Hungary!
Axial, our distributor for the country, holds an annual three day show in April which attracted some 22,000 visitors this year – and those who got into the indoor show got a major surprise, as Pals Mihalovics, our Territory Manager, explains:
“They always put on a good show and give the farmers something memorable. In past years they have used elephants, but this year – with the Simba SL being one of the major launches at the event – they bought in two lions. The show is run twice a day and the audience is always packed”.
The presentation made its mark, and now Pals reports having six prospective customers to visit in the next few weeks: “Lots of farmers are looking at the SL400 with an oilseed rape application kit fitted to it”.
He now moves on to two different shows in Romania, where SL and X-Press cultivators will be the main focus.
LOTS OF INTEREST IN LITHUANIA
One of the first SL700 models is already working hard in Lithuania, reports Edmundas Stankevicius, from our importer Dojus agro:
“It is on a 4,000 hectare farm growing a full range of combineable crops that is trying to move away from the plough to reduce the cost of establishing crops. The farmer says the SL is going very well.
“We have a lot of interest in the SL400 and SL500 models from farmers with anything from 500 to 3,000 hectares. They like the machine because it is so flexible; if they need to work deep to remove any compaction they can do that, but if they only need a shallow seedbed cultivation the machine can do that for them as well”.
FRANCE GETS READY TO DEAL
French importer Bonnel has made a fast start, with the first handful of dealers being appointed and taking machines to demonstrate.
Rob Iddeson, TM for the country, says several 4m X-Presses have already been sold and orders received for more, as well as for two 5.5m X-Presses:
“The dealers are coming on board, which is important as we will need them to provide both parts and service support to our new customers. Things are developing very well and we are planning a full programme of field demonstrations and show stands – including SIMA – for the future”.
