BALCATTA-based national combine harvester and tractor parts manufacturer and supplier Harvestaire Pty Ltd is on the move, both in size and location.
Harvestaire's parts despatch and sales teams recently moved into a new head office and factory at 1 Booth Place, Balcatta, with its manufacturing arm remaining at the company's previous location nearby in Mumford Place, Balcatta, until after this season's harvest is completed.
"We didn't want to disrupt production in the lead up to or during harvest to ensure we had parts available when they are urgently needed," said Harvestaire general manager Dirk Vorster.
Since 1981 Harvestaire has been manufacturing after-market and replacement header front and combine harvester parts and lamb marking cradles.
Over the years it has added a global network of suppliers for header front, combine and tractor parts and harvest accessories like moisture meters.
Its range now includes draper front belting and rollers, chains and sprockets, header knives and sections, crop lifters, tyne bars, sieves, concaves, rotor bars and drum bars, augers, chopper blades, lighting, engine and PTO parts for most makes and models.
So far this year Harvestaire has dispatched an unprecedented 461 tonnes of parts to customers around Australia, Mr Vorster said.
The move to Booth Place (2600 square metres) from Mumford Place (1500m2) has enabled the company to increase the range and scope of parts it carries "on the shelf", he said.
"We've increased our inventory by about $3 million," Mr Vorster said.
He said Harvestaire now manufactured about 1500 different parts in Perth, imported about 2500 parts from reputable suppliers and in total has "access to" about 10,000 parts - about 4000 of those for tractors.
"We carry everything," Mr Vorster said.
"We can supply parts for models long after the manufacturers stop supplying them.
"With headers for example, we can still manufacturer to order parts such as tyne bars for machines that are 30-years-old.
"We had a farmer come in recently who couldn't find parts anywhere else for a John Deere 200 series header front.
"He said he bought the front in the late 1980s or thereabouts and couldn't find knives for it."
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Mr Vorster said the company had learned lessons from last year when a spike in demand about this time had pushed production delays on the parts Harvestaire manufactures out to about six weeks.
"With all the changes we've made we've got it back to 15 days and we are holding at that," he said.
Dealers looking for parts that are no longer available from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) use Harvestaire to source parts.
"Sometimes the local dealers networks can no longer get factory parts in from around the world, so they come to us and we continue to airfreight the parts in from our suppliers," Mr Vorster said.
"Dealer networks do phenomenally well with selling big equipment.
"We do phenomenally well at making parts, sourcing parts and shipping parts, so that's our niche."
A new interactive website and a comprehensive 2022 header and tractor parts catalogue allows farmers to order replacement or spare parts ahead of harvest online.
In some instances they can use the manufacturer's serial number to identify all of the parts Harvestaire stocks or can source for that model, or they can search for the specific party they want.
Many times farmers order online, then call in to the factory to collect in person on their next trip to Perth, Mr Voster said.
"Some of the machinery dealers have told us our website is better than what they get from the manufacturers," he said.
"At this stage 55 per cent of all our orders are placed online.
"Harvestaire originated in Western Australia and now we service all of Australia - about 50pc of our business is in WA and 50pc on the east coast which is good.
"We're still expanding in WA, but undeniably our biggest growth has been in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, those three States have really come online in the past 24 months.
"We service them with a network of about 620 dealers and resellers who use our products.
"All up, on our books we have about 9500 farmers who buy from us direct or who buy our products from dealers.
"We publish our prices in the catalogue so a farmer knows that if he buys direct from Harvestaire, or if he buys from a dealer, that's the price he is going to pay."
Mr Vorster said ongoing delays with parcel delivery contractors, particularly for "ugly freight" - freight that does not fit the standard 1.2 metre x 1.2m x 1.2m box-on-pallet requirements of parcel contractors using automated sorting - had led the company to look at buying a truck and hiring a driver for WA deliveries.
"I recently attended the Henty Field Days in Victoria and the feedback was that we can get a part delivered into regional Victoria much quicker than we can get the same part delivered into the Wheatbelt - how is that fair to local farmers?" Mr Vorster said.
He said farmers could help overcome delivery delays in WA by going over their combine harvesters and tractors after this harvest and while their memory is still fresh of what replacement and service parts are required, place an early order.
"When they put the machine (harvester) away at the end of January, they know what it needs, so why do they wait until October to put the order in - put the order into Harvestaire in January and specify for delivery in June or July, simple as that," he said.
"A lot of farmers don't realise that when they order early, they are ordering the initial stock coming in and that is the cheapest stock.
"The lowest costs for Harvestaire are February-March, that is when we are putting residual stock from the previous year out at a lower rate.
"Ordering parts in the first quarter is always cheaper than in the second half of the year."
