Area Sales Manager – Agriculture
Reading Depot
‘I am looking forward to being here for the journey and being part of the growth of Kubota and Lister Wilder’
With Lister Wilder expanding its offering to include Kubota Agricultural equipment it became necessary to welcome new faces to team and with that, let’s meet your new Area Sales Managers for Agriculture; Bryn and Stuart. It’s time to really get to know these faces and hear their thoughts on what Kubota Agriculture is going to bring to the table for our farming community.
First up, we have Bryn, based at our Reading depot and your salesman for the surrounding area. Don’t let his fresh face deceive you, Bryn has made it his mission to gain practical and hands-on experience with farm machinery over the last few years. Despite not growing up on a farm there is no denying his enthusiasm for the farming industry which all stemmed from early days of watching tractors driving past his house. ‘It sparked an interest’ Bryn explains, ‘I joined Young Farmers and got more involved in farming through friends and competitions’. Once it was time to leave school Bryn decided he wasn’t quite ready to start a course at University and wanted to get some practical work under his belt. He started working on a Dairy farm learning the day-to-day routine of milking’s, feeding, bedding, cleaning and machine driving. ‘This was my first practical experience with livestock and gave me some good rounded understanding.’
With a year farm work complete Bryn was ready to embark on an Agricultural Management degree at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester. Within the course it was necessary to complete a placement which saw Bryn work at a game rearing farm. ‘This was a great opportunity for me to continue learning, albeit a slightly different style of farming to what we naturally think of, but great experience none the less.’
After graduating the passion to get more involved with machinery continued when Bryn worked for an agricultural contractor, ‘I loved driving the machinery, learning new skills and being able to work with different people. I like to be outdoors and hands-on so this was a great role for me and it taught me a lot about the machines.’ Noticing sales reps calling in and having the opportunity to speak with them provoked a thought, a future in sales perhaps? It turned out Bryn just needed that bit more time in the driver’s seat and took the opportunity to go to New Zealand. Driving for contractors on both North and South islands doing a variety of applications only strengthened his knowledge. With COVID becoming more prominent it was time to return to the UK, ‘I got stuck over there for a few weeks because of the tests that were required to travel so I decided to help finish off the maize season for a contractor there until I was clear to travel.’ Luckily, Bryn touched back down on UK soil and shortly after started with Lister Wilder, as well as somehow fitting in time to restore his classic Mini.
Some may find a new role and a new team extremely daunting, when we spoke with Bryn about his first few months with Lister Wilder it was quite the opposite. ‘I started my role as Area Sales Manager in November 2020 and was immediately welcomed by the team, everyone is so friendly and approachable which is a huge bonus. I have spent a lot of time getting to grips with the Kubota Agricultural products through training, this has been great to see first-hand the features and benefits that these machines will offer our customer base.’
The burning question we had for Bryn about Kubota, is the future orange? ‘Kubota is such a strong brand within construction and ground care and I know that this will only transfer with the growth of the agricultural business, I am looking forward to being here for the journey and being part of that growth.’
We finally wanted to know what has been the best surprise for him when learning about the Agricultural product from Kubota, ‘I have been so impressed with the functionality of the controls in the Kubota tractors, I really feel like anyone could jump in the cab and drive it, it is simple and easy-to-use which is a huge benefit against our competitors.’