It was built to Landpower’s specification under a 12-year lease-back from Christchurch International Airport Ltd.It consists of a 2200m2 warehouse, 800m2 office and 300m2 training area.
Says Wilson, “Quite aside from the pleasure of moving into a modern building, there is a certain amount of pride that we’re investing in our future. This building will allow us to grow for the next decade.
“The trend is for farm machinery importers to operate out of Australia and treat New Zealand as a secondary market. We think agricultural producers and contractors using our specialist products have the right to around-the-clock service and support if and when they need it.
“Likewise, we think our dealers have the right to access to parts and technical support in New Zealand time by people who know the geography.
“In many ways, this building is an investment in our dealer network. Purely and simply, it allows us to store more parts and provide better training for their staff so they can provide even better service to their customers.”
The warehouse portion has 30% greater capacity than the company’s
previous complex in Hornby. “We’ve now got about $15 million of parts in stock at any time,” Wilson says.
“I haven’t counted them myself but our parts manager assures me we have about 300,000 parts over 14,000 different lines.
“In simple terms, that will minimise downtime for our customers. If their local CLAAS Harvest Centre doesn’t have the part, then almost certainly we do and we’ll get it to them within 24 hours.
“Every Monday morning, we take delivery of another container of air-freighted parts from Germany. If we have a specific and urgent request, then we can have it landed in Christchurch within 48 hours of leaving Europe. This is supplemented by regular sea freight to build up our long-term inventory of parts,” Wilson says.
