US Farming Equipment Giant John Deere Announces New African Dealers as it Seeks to Expand Business

American agricultural equipment maker John Deere has announced its first three construction and forestry dealers responsible for the Southern African region.

They are: AFGRI Equipment, Mascor, and Senwes Equipment.

Each of these dealer groups has made significant enhancements to their business models to serve construction and forestry customers and support the new product and service offerings.

“Our approach is to leverage the John Deere brand and product power with the established and highly reputable AFGRI Equipment customer focus and footprint in Southern Africa,” said Pieter Nel, C&F business leader for AFGRI Equipment.

“We aim to not try and replicate but to offer unique, innovative, and exciting value propositions to customers.”

Each dealer has dedicated personnel and resources to ensure focus on construction and forestry’s unique and critical customer segments.

“We are focused on customer service, this is not a department, but an attitude backed up with the necessary skill and resources,” added Bill Comins, CEO of Mascor. “We are ready to dig in and get our hands dirty.”

John Deere African dealers — **John Deere Announces New African Dealers. [Courtesy]**

These dealers have been named to represent John Deere branded construction and forestry products not previously available in the region, including backhoe loaders, wheel loaders, motor graders, crawler dozers, and the very latest series of John Deere excavators – a first in Africa.

Managing Director for Senwes Equipment, Ferdie Pieterse, said: “It provides us with the opportunity to build on the renowned product quality and performance, exceptional customer support and innovative equipment technologies.”

A full range of products and services will also be offered to forestry customers. Product offerings include skidders, feller bunchers, tracked harvesters, and forwarders.

As part of their readiness to effectively sell and support the new products, local John Deere and dealer employees were trained and skilled on the equipment.

“We want to offer solutions on all business platforms, therefore we’re launching a separate and specialized John Deere Financial solution on construction and forestry equipment”, added Antois van der Westhuizen, Managing Director for John Deere Financial in Africa.

Last week the American corporation announced plans to expand market in 18 African countries.

The impacted countries include South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and Sudan.