Steve Purcher retires after selling Purcher International, Geraldton

He proudly admits he wants to become bored and maybe after that, find a new hobby.

Why?

Because from last week, Purcher International, the iconic agriculture and machinery dealership on Flores Road, Geraldton, officially changed hands and is now under the stewardship of another major agriculture and machinery dealership - McIntosh & Son - as previously reported in Farm Weekly.

While this week marks a new chapter in the company's history, Mr Purcher recently had time to reflect on how the business was established by his father Roy, who was born in Perth.

"His working career started from selling horse manure off the back of his cart," Mr Purcher said.

He then had a job working for the International Harvester company in Perth, where he started in stores, before switching to sales - which ultimately saw him become a regional sales manager.

Roy was looking after the Geraldton and Mid West region, while still being based in Perth.

In those days the major International Harvester dealership was Mullewa which also serviced the Geraldton area, with other thriving dealerships at places such as Morawa, Perenjori and Three Springs

Roy was active in the dealerships and would head out to farms to help conduct demonstrations.

It then got to the stage where International Harvester put him into Geraldton, so rather than driving up, he relocated to the Mid West with his young family.

Roy in his wisdom predicted Geraldton was going to be the central hub and saw its potential because it was on the ocean and had port facilities and he convinced Mullewa dealer Norm Griffiths (Norm Griffiths and Co) to relocate to the coast.

"Norm was hesitant but Roy convinced him to come across in the mid-1960s," Mr Purcher said.

In August 1967 Roy bought into the business that was in its infancy at the current Flores Road location.

"And away they went from there," Mr Purcher said.

A couple of years later Norm retired, with Roy taking complete ownership and Purcher International was formed.

"Between Roy and mum (Ailsa) they would often tell family stories about every dollar they earnt went back into the business - to pay out Norm - and mum would often say to Roy unless you are bringing money home we are not eating today," Mr Purcher said.

"Roy's philosophy was everyday he had to make money, if he went out to see a farmer he had to pay for his wages for that day, so he was selling spare parts, he was selling services, he was selling machinery - he was doing whatever he could to put money back into the business - he worked really hard.

"He has a history in sales, he had a history in spare parts with International Harvester - he knew how it all worked and he knew how to make money and he knew where the money was coming from."

Mr Purcher, who has lived in Geraldton all his life, said it was logical that he would become part of the business.

"I don't have a memory of not coming down here to go to work," he said.

He was there on weekends and every school holiday, being exposed to all parts of the business for which he would eventually become the public face.

"Every Saturday morning I would be here and it might have just been driving a tractor around the trade lot or whatever, but I was here as much as I could because I loved it," Mr Purcher said.

"I didn't think there was another option, I just loved doing what I was doing - I loved playing with machinery, I loved playing with trucks - it was like being in a sandpit."

After he finished school, Mr Purcher "went to Perth for six months to prove that I wasn't good enough to go to uni".

At 18 years of age and not enjoying business studies, he was back in Geraldton, living with his parents who said his only options were to work in the business or to get a trade.

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"So I came back into the business and previously where I was just playing around in the school holidays, it got a bit real and my first job was in spare parts," Mr Purcher said.

"I was there with a really nice guy called Alan Atkinson, who was the parts manager at the time.

"In those days everything was a book, so I was flicking through pages and pages and it taught me basic mechanics because you needed to know where everything went."

Mr Purcher said it was a far-cry from today's electronic version where "you click on what you want or you Google it".

"The product range went from a tractor to a harvester to a tillage bar to a truck, to a ute, to whatever we were doing, and I loved that whole learning about what we were doing," he said.

Mr Purcher was in spare parts for about seven years and "from there Roy shunted me off and I went into the servicing department as a costing clerk".

"My role was to cost the workshop jobs, cost out people's labour and how many hours they were doing on their time cards, that sort of thing," Mr Purcher said.

He was also doing warranty claims to the manufacturers, which expanded his learning.

"I am not a trained technician or a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination, but I knew how things worked, I knew the right terminology," Mr Purcher said.

"Spare parts taught me how to sell and to onsell - the service department taught me cost - everything had to have a cost and nothing could be given away."

Mr Purcher did that for a few years bef ore he moved into the administration area, under the tutelage of Eddy Plumb - and again this was all prior to computers

"We had a beautiful big ledger book that would have been, when you opened it up, three feet wide - they were beautiful pages," he said.

Mr Purcher admits to bad handwriting and "there were chicken scratches all the way through but it taught me how to add up and it taught me how to balance the books".

"All of a sudden that taught me how it (the business) all went together," he said.

The next phase of understanding the business was a role in the sales department which was based around trucks, but in the early days, they also sold Diahatsu cars and with that came the admission he didn't like the car sales side of the business.

Mr Purcher enjoyed hitting the open road and actively pursued shire tenders across a big patch, with their International Truck sales area covering an area from Moora through to Port Hedland.

Liaising with local shires, farmers and organisations, such as Main Roads, gave him plenty of exposure to the market and to meet people.

The next step for Mr Purcher was to run the overall business.

"As time progressed I stepped into this role, Roy was still dealer principal and he still owned the business, but he decided to retire in 2007 so my wife Paula and I took on the roles of owning the business," he said.

Mr Purcher said working in all aspects of the business prior to then gave him a greater appreciation for what his father did.

Being part of the community was something that Roy did well in the early days and something his son has embraced.

This includes sponsoring local organisations, including the Northampton Football Club from "about 1980".

Mr Purcher said over the years it has been rewarding to be able to support different organisations to help them also be successful, including one of the newer projects, Mid West Charity Begins at Home.

When quizzed about the biggest advancements in machinery he has seen over the years, Mr Purcher paused for a moment to consider the options.

"In my time we have had air-conditioned cabs, we have had all that sort of stuff, whereas in Roy's time in the 1960s and 70s, the poor buggers were sitting under an umbrella out in the weather and covered in oat chaff, with a 12-14 foot front on their harvester," he said.

"I get amazed now at the automation and still shake my head at autosteer and RTK.

"We made the decision mid-2000s to put up an RTK (real-time kinematic positioning) network and we have about 34 towers in the region to run our own RTK network and it has worked really well."

Mr Purcher said changes in telecommunication were also a big thing.

"In the good old days if the machine broke down you had to get your way back to your house to ring the dealership and away you go - and even two-way radios in the early days were a bit rare," he said.

"I can still remember the first bloke, who was at Mingenew, who had hooked up his two-way radio in his harvester cab to his phone in the office and it was like talking to someone in Antartica.

"You would talk and then you would have to wait for their response.

"I remember the salesman at the time was Merv Baxter and he said this is all going wrong now - these people should not be able to ring us from their cab."

Now Mr Purcher said it had progressed to text messages and even WhatsApp social media groups.

He said access to the dealership had changed and as a result they had to be more prepared.

As far as mechanics go, the main tool in their toolkit now is a laptop where they are able to dial into the complex mechanical systems, but Mr Purcher said the hidden part of the business was the spare parts team.

"You can have a mechanic go out and fix the machine but the only reason you can fix it is if the spare parts supply is up," Mr Purcher said.

The dealer principal said it was about ensuring the right parts were in stock, in the right quantities.

"You can have 20 of the same part in stock and those 20 people love you, but the 21st guy who walks through the door will abuse you because you haven't got what they want," Mr Purcher said.

"Roy's history was spare parts which is why he made me be in spare parts for such a long time."

Longer lead times for parts has also seen the businesses expand its stock holding to more than double in the past couple of years.

So what is next for Mr Purcher?

"My first goal is to be bored," he said.

"I just want to stop, I want to destress and grow some hair and then see where it goes."

He won't miss all the things that keep him awake at night that come with running a complex business, that at its peak had about 38 staff.

What he will miss, however, is the people.

"I will miss the people, I will miss the sharing of ideas and thoughts, I will miss being a part of people's business-making decisions," Mr Purcher said.

He has been the face of the business for so long and will also miss being on things such as the Case IH national dealer council, something that he did for 10 years.

After he has taken some time out, he will plot his next course, saying it won't be running a dealership - and for the short-term, if someone offered him a job driving a truck, a tractor or a header, he would be fine with that.

Steve and Paula Purcher's final day in the dealership is today.

"Be prepared for tears," he said.