Leigh Harris, who has been working as CASE’s business director for the UK and Republic of Ireland since early 2017, has been a key figure in enlarging the
CASE’s director of Network Development EMEA in the three years prior to his current role, Harris, a British national, has more than 10 years’ experience in the construction equipment industry.
Speaking at the
“In mainland Europe, we’ve got three new dealers in France, in Germany we’ve now got ten dealers on board, and we’ve got a couple more dealers in Italy. We’ve also got a new dealer in Poland.”
Of CASE’s dealership reach In the UK, Harris added: “We now have in place excellent coverage in London and East Anglia, recruiting the likes of John Hanlon [Plant Hire]. We have Robert Coates [Plant Sales] covering Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. In my previous role I was based in the UK and had a couple of network managers reporting to me. I was very hands on in taking on new UK dealerships.
“I know our very established UK dealers from working with them in both my previous and current jobs. They are doing a great job for us. My new role is very much about supporting our new dealers; you need to get salesman on board and train them up, get the service technicians on board and train them up. You need to make sure they are representing the CASE brand in the right manner. We’ve implemented a [dealership] network programme that is reinforcing standards. That programme is being run across our European dealership network.”
Harris said that CASE’s 13 dealerships in the UK & Ireland benefit from being small businesses whose owners are on “every deal” and “know about every machine that’s gone down”.
“If you’re a customer that’s invested in capital equipment, you want to know you can count on the right servicing to back that investment up. Smaller businesses offer that personalised service.”
While appreciating the benefits of small business dealerships, Harris said he and his team were building relationships with larger UK plant rental companies, who they hope will invest in CASE wheeled loader and excavator models.
“We’ve already got a lot of machines sold to Morris Leslie [Plant Hire]. They are probably our biggest [national] plant rental customers. We’ve also got quite a few regional rental fleets across Britain.
“I think next year we’ll start to see more CASE national plant rental business.”
Harris said demand for construction and quarrying equipment in the UK & Ireland remained “very strong”, despite the challenge of fluctuating currencies linked to the Brexit vote. “There’s a big cost impact on the industry, but despite that the market in Britain is up 10-15% on last year, largely driven by the house building sector. Demand for our 13 tonne and 8 tonne excavators is very high; we are selling as fast as we can produce them.”
