Customer Announcement

November 2020 

For the past twenty years, Lister Wilder have proudly represented both Kubota and AGCO – in our humble opinion two of the very best franchises in the industry. In many ways this was the perfect partnership with the AGCO range focusing on tractors over 100hp and Kubota dominating the market in the lower HP sector.  

Our business has steadily grown over this period with Fendt and Valtra joining Massey Ferguson under the AGCO banner and the Kubota offering increasing to encompass Construction machinery, the commercial Groundcare range and of course the steady move of Kubota into the Agricultural market. Regarding the latter, both franchises have worked extremely hard to accommodate each other within our operation but we’ve always known that one day we would have to make a choice as to the future pathway – the problem has been on how to uncouple two such significant franchises in a way that protected everyone within the company, whilst also ensuring our customers remained supported in the same professional manner.

The answer slowly appeared when discussions started between ourselves and Chandlers Farm Equipment – another very well respected AGCO dealership who were dealing with a range of similar issues within their business. We are delighted to say that through some very friendly and good natured discussions, we have reached an agreement whereby Chandlers will purchase our AGCO business – giving both companies a very clear and bright future…Chandlers with the full line AGCO offering and Lister Wilder with the full line Kubota range.

With an agreement signed, the official transition is taking place on 4th January 2021, and we’ll spend the next couple of months integrating systems to ensure the transition is seamless. The entire AGCO team are moving across and so it’s very much business as usual and in the New Year you’ll continue to ring the same numbers, visit the same branches, be supported by the same great engineers, looked after by the same passionate sales team and served by the same attentive parts team…just with a different name on the invoices.

Regarding the future of the branches, the new leases all reflect a very long-term commitment from Chandlers – something that should be extremely reassuring for all concerned. There is also an agreement where the Lister Wilder team will operate from the existing the locations while we build the new Kubota centres from which to work…something that demonstrates the level of understanding between the two companies and the genuinely held belief that we both want the best for each other, all employees and yourselves.

In essence it’s a mutually beneficial and pragmatic solution to what would have become an extremely large problem – instead you will now be looked after and supported by the largest AGCO and Kubota dealerships in the country. We therefore couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome or the professional and respectful way this has been handled by all parties.  

We hope you share our joint excitement for the future, and we all look forward to being of service to you for many, many years to come.

In the meantime, we would happily answer any questions that you may have and so please feel free to email us at [email protected]

Kind regards

Jason Scott
Company Chairman