AFTER 20 years, Greg and Leonie Hard are handing over the reins of Esperance Rural Supplies, having agreed to a deal with Elders.
The Hards bought into the then CRT-owned business in mid-2000, postponing a fledgling attempt at an early retirement in Geraldton.
Esperance Rural Supplies has since grown about eight-fold, from a small enterprise worth about $5 million, to a significant local business - with an extensive customer base, 15 employees and its own transport trucks.
Mr Hard, who will be 71 in April, will continue working as manager for the next 12 months - as he transitions to retirement at the couple's 40 hectare farm outside the town.
"It's time to hang my boots up,'' Mr Hard said.
He said he was happy that, under the deal, Esperance Rural Supplies would continue to have a strong presence in the region.
"I had several companies that were keen to buy it in the past year,'' Mr Hard said.
"Elders gave me the best price and I was comfortable selling it to them, because they wanted to buy my business and keep it the same as it is.
"They are keeping the same place, the same shirts... everything pretty much the same as it is.
"The only difference customers will possibly notice is when they get a statement, it will look different."
But Mr Hard said the deal would provide the supplier with access to Elders' national buying network, which should offer benefits to farmers from its stronger purchasing power.
"We will buy our stock through Elders now,'' he said.
"I am excited as Elders, being a national company, I now realise can buy its supplies cheaper than I do as an independent and those types of benefits can be passed onto the growers.
"It will make the business more profitable, and pass on some of those extra benefits, which will put all the farming people who deal with us in a better situation."
Elders State general manager Nick Fazekas said Elders had identified the Esperance region as one of the largest crop protection and input areas in WA and saw the purchase of the well-respected Esperance Rural Supplies as a great opportunity to grow in the region.
"Our decision to purchase Esperance Rural Supplies will provide us with greater market access to a wider customer base,'' Mr Fazekas said.
"Elders will initiate a light touch business model whereby all staff, including branch manager Greg Hard, will be retained and will continue to run the business as normal in the existing location and under the existing brand.
"Esperance Rural Supplies' customers will still receive the same high quality level of service from the same familiar faces.
"The existing product range will remain and, over time, Elders' plans to introduce an additional product range portfolio such as finance, insurance, real estate and grain offerings."
Mr Fazekas said the Elders Esperance branch would not be affected by the transaction.
The Hards settled well in Esperance, having moved from Geraldton in mid-2000 to take up an opportunity to buy a 50 per cent share in Esperance Rural Supplies and manage the business for CRT, an arrangement which continued for six or seven years until they bought the business outright.
Mr Hard had not long retired from his first own business, Abrolhos Reef Lodge.
"We managed that licence for seven years, then we sold that and I reckoned I was going to walk the beach,'' he said.
"I was not quite 50 and within three months I was absolutely bored stiff.''
When they arrived in Esperance, Esperance Rural Supplies was one of four rural suppliers in the town.
Mr Hard said the business had a strong boost about six months later, when a competitor - IAMA - was bought out by Wesfarmers Landmark.
"I got a fairly significant drift over a number of years, customers who used to be IAMA clients came to us,'' he said.
"That helped to grow the business a lot.''
When CRT, which became RuralCo, decided to sell the store, the Hards were able to buy its share.
"Leonie and I have owned it outright between the two of us ever since,'' Mr Hard said.
Ms Hard has been an important part of the business partnership, managing the accounts and office "during all the ups and downs and the whole way through".
"Leonie has been very much part of the business for the 22 years we have been here,'' Mr Hard said.
He said they had been the first rural suppliers in Esperance to start a service to deliver chemicals onfarm to farmers, about 15 years ago, and were running their own triple road train, which twice a week transported all the business' supplies from Perth.
Mr Hard said it was fitting to re-establish the family's connection with Elders, as he had worked for the company for a large part of his career.
Having grown up with three brothers on the family farm in Denmark, where they grew beef and potatoes, he worked for Great Southern Ag Supplies for about 18 months and then spent about 13 years with Elders - starting as a storeman and becoming a merchandise manager and area manager.
"Elders taught me everything I ever knew in the game, certainly in the early days and I suppose that's where I got my incentive to do what I have done,'' he said.
Mr Hard said the pandemic, delays in global supply chains and the record-breaking grain-growing season, meant the business had just experienced a year like no other.
Huge delays in shipping chemicals from China have become a significant challenge.
"We have had probably the biggest season we have ever had this past 12 months,'' he said.
"We have seen very good loyalty from our customers and they gave us their orders early, so they knew that they have the chemical and can grow their crops."
"We are now ordering nine to 12 months ahead of where we used to order, so in June we start ordering for the following season.
"Unfortunately we are so reliant still on China for the bulk of our chemicals - so we order early and forward sell it."
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