Machinery rings cash in on £240,000 rebate windfall

Published on 10/04/2012 00:00

Farmers taking part in an innovative scheme that provides cash rebates on their Case IH machinery purchases have already benefited to the tune of £240,000.

Now in its fourth year, the scheme provides machinery ring members an additional rebate on their purchases of Case IH machinery. “This scheme is really showing the benefits of membership of belonging to one of Scotland’s machinery rings,” said Graham Bruce, on behalf of the Scottish Machinery Ring Association, which negotiated the original deal.

He added that this type of co-operation gave individual members the ability to negotiate with international companies

Andy Whiley, national accounts manager with Case IH, said: “This not only shows the growing reputation of our machinery, but also the fact that the rebate is helping us to clinch deals.”

He said 30-40 per cent of the tractors claiming the rebate were ring members changing from another manufacturer to Case IH.

One of the farmers who has benefited from the scheme is Lindsay Martin of W Martin & Sons, of Guildy, Monikie, which runs a contracting and haulage business.

Martin said: “I bought a 185hp Case IH Puma last June for our baling and carrot-lifting work. It is extremely fuel efficient and it is a nice bonus to get the rebate on top of the purchase deal I did with local agents, A M Phillip, of Muiryfaulds.”

Stephen Young, of the Borders Machinery Ring, said the deal was delivering real benefits to members’ businesses. This was not only in terms of the rebate scheme, but also in education on what modern machinery was able to achieve “The feedback we have received is entirely positive, with the figures speaking for themselves,” he said.

“We are looking forward to growing the scheme and handing more money back to members in the coming years, as well as providing more information on the latest developments in the machinery world.”