BOURGAULT Australia has a defined plan for increasing its share of the Australian seeding and tillage market.
And integral to that plan is ensuring it maintains its level of experienced staff.
In Western Australia, the company's WA operations manager Ben Bulley is celebrating his 13th year as a Bourgault staff member, maintaining his enthusiasm for sales while taking more responsibility at a management level.
"I love being out with customers and I hope that remains, but I do have more of an overseeing role now that embraces all aspects of our business," Mr Bulley said.
From a farming background in Sussex, England, Mr Bulley worked for 16 years in farming while also becoming proficient on the mechanical side.
"When I got to 36, I started looking at new career opportunities and a bit of a life change so I came to WA in 1999," he said.
It didn't take long for his skills to be noticed and he spent several years as branch manager with McIntosh & Son Moora before joining Westrac.
In 2006 the opportunity came up to join Bourgault and he hasn't looked back.
Bourgault started in WA in 1997 following an arrangement with the then Forward Engineers which built equipment for Bourgault under licence.
Its popularity grew rapidly and Bourgault decided to create a presence in WA, establishing its own premises in Kelmscott, less than a kilometre away from where it is building and refurbishing its new headquarters.
"The Armadale premises were built in 2000 and it has been a growth path since," Mr Bulley said.
"It is a great company and one of the few family-owned ag-manufacturing businesses on the world market.
"A lot of their employees are from farms and Bourgault test prototype equipment on those farms so product development isn't based on computers but the real thing."
In WA, Bourgault is one of the top three companies holding a major market share and arguably that increases if you assess its national reach, compared with competitors.