Erik HogervorstFrom the President
 
European dealers experiences  a very competitive and volatile market, on the other hand, over the longer term sales are very stable and only slowly decreasing in numbers.
The pressure that is enforced  by the OEMs on the market make that sometimes unrealistic goals are required of dealers and therefore we sometimes have the feeling that the market does not give enough room for healthy margins.
It seems that financial institutions pay more attention to meet the Basel III standards instead of  maintaining the KNOWLEDGE of assessing applications for funding of SMEs. In some cases this means that healthy companies have trouble reaching goals or even trouble to survive.
 
The national market fluctuations are caused by fluctuations in the world market. But also by the implementation of the European agricultural policy (CAP) and by recent developments such as the import bans in Russia. This leads to uncertainty and  large differences in the investment space for our customers,  the end-users.
On top of this there are  the European regulations that demands open information from the manufacturers to non-brand dealers and put strict rules towards to the protection of dealerships. .
All these developments contribute to a great strain on the management of you as a dealer.

 
Remains the enormous potential of our agricultural sector. The growing world population, but also the need for smarter food production and better ensured food safety, gives enormous opportunities for our industry.
Also  other sectors where you as a dealer are becoming more active in,  display opportunities. With the urbanization of large areas in Europe, the green infrastructure becomes increasingly important. You as a dealer but also CLIMMAR sees this as an important sector. Furthermore we see, depending on the country and area, activities in various sectors. Here counts that as long as it comes to dealer activities CLIMMAR will support where it can.
 
In all this surrounding `violence`, the dealer  must keep the focus on the needs of his  customers and the added value that he  can provide for them. The dealer who is  able to fulfil this in a positive manner creates his own  future!
CLIMMAR supports you through mapping  the threats and opportunities of our industry at a European level.
I would like to give you some examples. CLIMMAR stimulates the  joint collection of information about our industry so that we can give data on where your company stands in the International market.
For severals years now, CLIMMAR executes  the European dealer satisfaction index, that can be used to tell the manufacturer what he can do better to support the dealer’s needs and to improve the relationship between manufactures and dealers.
 And last but not least, CLIMMAR supports EUROSkills where the profession of agricultural machinery mechanic is promoted and shown to attract young people to start a career in our industry  and improve the image of the sector. The developments in our industry go very fast. Even so fast that it threatens the quality and  level of knowledge within (national)  education programs and schooling systems. In this respect CLIMMAR can’t stress enough effort to alert on this growing problem. Without the craftsmanship levelling up to the technologic developments, the continuation of a good future of our businesses will be in danger.
In the coming years The Netherlands has the great honour to perform the secretariat of CLIMMAR. Personally I am very proud to act  as President of this great organisation. I promise you my full devotion to help you to meet the challenges of the future in our incredible interesting industry. Together we will make CLIMMAR matter!
I challenge you to give your opinion on what you think CLIMMAR can do for you!