WESTERN Australia's biggest John Deere dealership, AFGRI Equipment, is right on track with its goals.
That's the message from the company's operations director Gollie Coetzee, who spoke with Torque at last week's AFGRI Ride and Drive days at the WA College of Agriculture, Morawa.
An upbeat Gollie said the official opening of its new Guildford headquarters would mark the start of a new cycle of goals.
"By October this year, we will have come full circle on what we needed to accomplish since starting in WA," he said.
"And it will put us in a position over the next 10 years to ensure the next generation will be there to carry on the business.
"The focus is still on attracting, training and retaining staff and that is working well.
"About a quarter of our staff is younger than 25 years and 80 per cent of our management team is younger than 45 years, so our succession planning is solidly in place and we will keep talking about career opportunities, particularly within our business.
"We've made a huge investment in establishing a dealer network and this event at Morawa is part of it.
"We're prepared to invest in rural communities, even if we haven't got a branch in the town."
Gollie said the company's apprenticeship academy would continue into the "foreseeable future" with an annual intake of 25 young people.
"We're aiming to have between 75 and 100 apprentices in the system and it won't be all about the workshops," he said.
"We'll train them in areas such as sales, parts, technicians, etc, to provide them with opportunities as they grow with the company.
"With our 14 branches, we will have 300 jobs available so promotion opportunities are real and I would like to think more about a career than a job opportunity.
"A stable workforce also provides a big benefit for customers who take confidence in people they know have the right product training to assist them."
