CNH’s move to put Case IH and New Holland under the same dealerships reached north and east Scotland at the end of May, and farmers spent twelve days working out what it means for them. The conversation on The Farming Forum read it as a test of whether loyalty to a tractor brand can survive the exit of the local dealers who built it.
By TFF News | 2 October 2026 | Machinery
The conversation drew 132 visible contributions, 14,079 views and 186 reactions between 29 May and 9 June 2026, averaging 1.41 reactions per contribution. It is a self-selected discussion, not a representative survey of the sector.
A year’s notice, and new rivals from day one
The facts behind the conversation are now on the record. Case IH appointed Agricar and Ravenhill, both long-standing New Holland dealers, to sell the red brand from 8 June 2026: Agricar across Angus, Fife, Kincardineshire, Perthshire and Stirlingshire from five depots, Ravenhill across Aberdeenshire, Morayshire, the Highlands, Orkney and Shetland from six. Farmers Weekly reported that the outgoing Case IH dealers, Mark and Jackie Garrick at Elgin, AL Agri at Forfar and J Low Agri at Kelty, were given twelve months’ notice, with the Garricks saying they were neither involved nor consulted in the decision.
Contributors spotted the awkward overlap at once: “So outgoing dealers have 12 months notice but immediately competing against the big boys who will undoubtedly get better terms to help justify the changes.” Another doubted the notice period would mean much in practice: “Doubt these ex Case dealers will want to sell much Case in the next 12 months anyway, when they’re not going to support the machine.” Contributors also traded reports of parallel changes in Staffordshire, Cumbria, Cornwall and Wales, most unconfirmed at the time, though Farmers Weekly later confirmed Johnsons of Cheadle had relinquished Case IH and Startin Tractors had expanded.
Loyalty built dealer by dealer
The dominant reaction was sympathy for the dealers losing the franchise: “Shame as Mark Garrick was a good small dealer and started to sell a lot of tractors.” A customer running nine Case machines put the service case plainly: “Absolute shambles, 9 Case machines here, Mark and the team are a pleasure to deal with.” Another called it a “Disappointing decision, especially locally given the effort our local guys have put in for their customers over the years”.
The most-agreed-with contribution in the whole conversation predicted the commercial consequence: “Pretty much just killed the brand off here with this move.” Others were less sure anger changes buying behaviour. One contributor who worked through a similar cull at an AGCO dealer a decade ago recalled the customers who “Told us they’ll never forgive them etc, they still buy the same brands”. Loyalty has a long tail too: one contributor “can’t see the New Holland dealer being that interesting when I go into the parts department quoting David Brown part numbers”.
The corporate sum
Contributors saw the manufacturer’s logic clearly enough. One expected savings in the back office: “They’ll make cuts in warranty teams so instead of having a warranty guy for CASE Scotland and NH Scotland they’ll just have one for Scotland.” The same contributor summed up the calculation as he saw it: “Not nice, not fair and not what anyone wants. Perfect chance to try another brand and remind manufacturers that customers still come first”. Another framed it as simple corporate distance: “As with the JD shake up, these are global companies run for shareholders. What happens in NE Scotland or the UK for that matter won’t really be of much concern to them.” CNH’s UK and Ireland commercial director David Rapkins has put the official case the other way: that long-established dealerships make for a strong, stable and future-ready network.
One brand, one colour?
Underneath the dealer question sat a brand question: “How long till just one brand? Guess they will keep case in the US??” One contributor argued the point is fewer dealerships rather than fewer brands, recalling the American pattern: “When I was in the states over 10 years ago nearest dealers were usually 20-50 miles away could be classed as large super dealers. Afraid that will be the way of things here before long.” Another saw the endgame as pure badge engineering: “There slowly getting closer to the stage where the only choice will be colour, everything else will be the same”.
That fed a hard point for the used market, offered as belief rather than data: “I believe that Case sell slightly cheaper but have a slightly lower residual value in UK. Blue paint commands a premium over red second hand”. And several expected the winners to be outside CNH altogether: “JD & Agco will benefit as much, if not more than CNH from this move.”
Rivals sense an opening
The forward-looking strand asked who picks up the displaced dealers, and where disruption could come from: “Theyr really opening the door for the chinese brands to come here and get good decent dealers with a good customer base.” Another was blunter: “Hope they take on some Chinese brand and bomb the rest of them out!” Price pressure is already moving buyers, by one account: “theres been a bit of a shift with quite a few deere men buyin a nh, i dont know exactly but from what i hear theres at least 30k of price difference”, a figure the conversation did not verify.
The market backdrop contributors described checks out. One noted that “New Tractor sales have recovered fairly well, almost 1000 units up on the same period last year and almost at 2024 figures YTD.” AEA figures reported by Farmers Guide show 4,956 tractors registered in the first five months of 2026, up nearly a quarter on the same period of 2025 and just 4% below the five-year average, after 2025’s post-war low of 8,791 units. The same contributor reckoned the three biggest groups now hold the great bulk of the UK market, and drew the long lesson:“On the face of it, this put’s JD in a very strong position, however nothing is forever, in the late 70’s Deere was not everyone’s chosen brand.”
The question the trade is left with
For manufacturers, the question is whether the savings are worth the bruised loyalty; for rivals, whether a displaced dealer with a loyal customer base is the cheapest route into the UK market. One contributor left the whole trade its homework:“The question that every buyer should ask is “how does this add value to my business”. If all these changes benefit the manufacturers, how will those economies be shared by the buyers ?” When the notice periods run out next June, the trade will find out whose sum was right.
Read the source conversation and analysis
Read the full conversation on The Farming Forum here.
Download the full conversation analysis as a slide deck: CNH restructuring conversation analysis (PDF).
This conversation had been viewed 14,079 times on The Farming Forum when counted on 2 October 2026. Want your brand in the room when farmers talk machinery?
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