It was the year 2020, and even though we knew we would have to approach it slightly differently with respect to Covid-19 regulations, we surely did not expect a rollercoaster of a year. That being said, AFGRI Equipment showed its true colours of determination to deliver the best possible service to our farmers!
This year started with the launch of the new John Deere 8R which had farmers talking about the benefits of higher Hp models and the integrated intelligence that comes standard, however, when the nationwide lockdown that occurred it left AFGRI Equipment with the largest amount of John Deere tractor deliveries in a tight timeframe that we have seen in a really long time, we called it “The Gathering”.
This year was definitely a year of many firsts as lockdown enabled us to host our first virtual farmers day with Citrus Farmers in the Clanwilliam district, the discussion was lead by Aerobotics who highlighted the potential advantages of Aerobotics technology within the Citrus farming community of Citrusdal.
Another successful first for AFGRI Equipment was our online auction hosted in partnership with GWK and Veewinkel, where we auctioned off our second-hand machinery at the best prices possible, to ensure that our farmers cash in on those savings!
Our social media presence over the last 12 months had more than doubled with one of our Facebook posts going VIRAL, our followers just seemed to soak up relevant, interesting, and applicable content. For this reason, we decided to go and film our own mini-series called “the AFGRI Equipment EDGE” The mini-series tells the story of AFGRI Equipment and the underlying quality of our brand, our history, our passion, and a combined focus on the future. With these videos, we showcased not only our business but some of our products too from our Beroni range, Rovic and Leers’ offering, and of course the new John Deere 8R!
During the months of September – October our farmers were busy planting for the next crop and we decided to pay Christo Cronje from Cronje Boerdery, one of our long time clients a visit and we got footage of the very first 36 row John Deere DB planter working in South Africa, proudly delivered by AFGRI Equipment Standerton! We also made a stop at Wouter Kruidenier Boerdery, we visited Wouter Kruidenier SNR and Wouter Kruidenier JNR on their farm in Perdekop, Mpumalanga. Here we had interesting discussions on controlled traffic farming and the excellent singulation offered by the Exactemerge planter series from John Deere, especially the benefits in soya spacing.
And lastly, to end off our year on a huge high AFGRI Equipment received top honours at the annual John Deere Awards Ceremony, the categories in which AFGRI Equipment took home the top accolades are:
In the category Dealer of the Year: Single Dealership, Our AFGRI Equipment Branch in Botswana took first place, we would like to congratulate Arthur Bezhuidenhout and his excellent team for this achievement!
In the category Dealer of the Year: Multi Dealership, our Chief of Operations William Nichols and his top team secured second place in the North and Abrie Visser and his team in the Western Cape won first place!
In the category “Parts Expert of the Year“, AFGRI Equipment did a clean sweep with Abraham Mouton, placed third, Johannes Haefele placed second and Jaco Wessels placed first!
In the category “Sales of the Year“, Paul Janse van Rensburg from AFGRI Equipment Bethal placed 1st and Johnny de Bod from our AFGRI Equipment Ceres branch placed first for the Western Cape region.
In the category “Workshop of the Year“, Artie Bester from AFGRI Equipment Bethlehem placed third and Dewald Crouse from AFGRI Equipment Middelburg placed second!
Last, but not least in the category “Technician of the Year“, Tiaan Oosthuizen from AFGRI Equipment Polokwane placed third and Gert Grobler from AFGRI Equipment Grootvlei placed first!
What this year has shown us is that when times get tough, AFGRI Equipment keeps on going and persevering to deliver the best possible service and value to our farmers, who we all depend on daily. We are very proud of what we have achieved as an organization in this uncertain year, and look forward to stepping up our game even more in 2021!
