Carlisle-based Lloyd Ltd, the Bobcat dealer for County Durham, Teesside, Cumbria and Northumberland in England and the southern part of Scotland, covering South Ayrshire, the Border counties and Dumfries and Galloway, has expanded the services it provides for customers in the construction and hire markets, bringing significant benefits for both Lloyd Ltd and Bobcat.
Results have been especially impressive in product and aftermarket sales for the Bobcat range of compact loaders, compact excavators and attachments. As well as the construction and rental markets, the other main sectors for Lloyd are agriculture, groundcare and materials handling, where sales of Bobcat equipment have also increased.
This has been supported by Lloyd’s own finance team, with a wide choice of finance options available to suit different customers in the market. It is one of the advantages that arises from cross-fertilisation with the motor vehicle side of the Lloyd business, covering the same areas in the North of England and the South of Scotland.
Alistair Whitby, Dealer Principal at the Lloyd branch in Bishop Auckland, said: “The expansion in construction has delivered a 20% rise in Bobcat business. This is backed by similar increases in the number of finance packages we have sold. We are also investing heavily in our facilities and processes to ensure that it is even easier for new and existing Bobcat customers to do business with us. The Construction side is headed by our Construction Sales Manager, Chris Stephenson, who runs out of Bishop Auckland and Newcastle.”
Family-owned Business
Founded in 1964 as a tractor dealership in Carlisle, Lloyd has grown considerably over the past five decades but has retained its approach and style as a family-run business with local roots. A key feature of the company is the easy accessibility customers have to interact with personnel at every level of Lloyd Ltd.
As well as Bishop Auckland and Newcastle, Lloyd Ltd has branches right across the North of England in Alnwick, Carlisle and Penrith and at Dumfries and Kelso in Scotland, where the company has increased focus on the construction sector with the appointment of construction sales representatives at each of the branches.
As well as building new premises for the Penrith branch, the construction expansion includes new investments in facilities together worth over £7 million, including refurbishment of the Carlisle, Newcastle and Kelso branches. The investment also includes a new facility Lloyd Ltd is planning opposite the current Bishop Auckland branch, where a new 2900 m2 building will be constructed on company-owned land that will offer an outstanding showroom, triple workshop area and a training centre.
In addition, with the Bobcat range now fully available from Kelso, Lloyd offers Bobcat products from every branch. The expansion at Lloyd has coincided with numerous developments in the Bobcat range with new Bobcat products with enhanced features and quality designed and supplied from plants in the Czech Republic and the USA.
In the six years the company has been a Bobcat dealer, Lloyd has developed very close ties with Bobcat, with regular focus meetings with Paul Hyslop, the Bobcat District Manager UK North. The focus meetings explore every aspect of the Bobcat-Lloyd relationship, with a key discussion being customer focused actions to ensure the right customers are targeted with the right solutions and including forward planning on stocks of Bobcat products to help optimise lead times for customers.
Paul Hyslop commented: “I have been very pleased with the strides taken over the last two years by Lloyd, which have provided a significant boost to Bobcat sales in the areas they cover. I was delighted that Bishop Auckland was able to host the recent 2018 Bobcat Customer Roadshow as it toured England and Scotland, providing a great Bobcat experience for existing and prospective customers alike.”
Bobcat Roadshow at Lloyd
The Bobcat Roadshow provided visitors with a great opportunity to experience first-hand the latest products in the Bobcat range under the guidance of expert demonstrators from the Bobcat European headquarters in the Czech Republic and staff from Lloyd’s sales and finance departments.
One of the main themes of the Roadshow event was a focus on the Bobcat range of compact track loaders and the landscaping/groundcare market using a wide variety of Bobcat attachments on these machines. This was illustrated by using the Bobcat T450 compact track loader and MT55 mini track loader with a number of Bobcat attachments for these applications. The Roadshow also offered visitors their first look at the new E26 mini-excavator, one of five models in Bobcat’s new ground-breaking R-Series 2-4 tonne excavator range, taking performance and innovation to new levels.
The T450, MT55 and E26 were complemented at the event with a range of other Bobcat machines and attachments provided by Lloyd. This demonstrated the fantastic versatility offered by the machines in the Bobcat range, where the operator can switch quickly between different attachments to carry out a wide range of different types of work with the same machine.
Summarising, Alistair Whitby added: “Our Bobcat Roadshow event was a great day for our staff and customers. We had visitors from as far afield as Scotland, with several families joining in with the fun. With its unique atmosphere, the Roadshow allowed us to close off several new deals for Bobcat equipment. We are looking forward to a very exciting future with Bobcat and the expansion which will soon become a reality at Bishop Auckland with the planning permission finally in the bag.”
