A survey conducted by CLIMMAR of farm machinery sales has shown that 80% of European machinery dealers have been impacted by Covid-19. 70% of dealers expect a “significant decrease in turnover and orders placed”.
In total 660 dealerships from 14 different countries responded to the survey.
According to CLIMMAR, the data gives a “good indication” of the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on machinery sales.
Image source: CLIMMAR
The main impact of Covid-19 has been seen in dealers’ sales departments. New machines are suffering the biggest decline in sales. The sale of used machinery has also been affected significantly, but less so than new equipment.
The effects of Covid-19 on workshop turnover – on repair and maintenance – appear to be smaller. Some dealers still have enough work, says CLIMMAR, to “maintain profits”. This is partly due to the fact that customers, especially in the agricultural sector, continued to work during Covid-19.
Image source: CLIMMAR
In general, around 45% of the dealer companies stated that they expect to require “financial support” to survive the crisis.
However, 13% of companies indicated in the survey that they don’t require aid measures and that they “can manage without financial support”.
The outlook for upcoming months is pessimistic, with regard to machinery sales and overall turnover. More than 70% of dealers indicated that they expect a significant decrease in orders. 16% of those companies expect a decrease of more than 25%.
For the record, CLIMMAR is a network of farm machinery dealer organisations across much of Europe.