Kerr Ag Katanning has been sold

Originally started by Patrick Kerr - or Paddy as he was known - PH Kerr & Co was taken over by son Brian in 1998 and, after more than 40 years hands-on involvement, Brian and wife Jill have sold the business to Agwest Machinery.

Respected long-term parts manager, Wayne Munyard and two mechanics will join the new owner and two other staff members have moved on to new jobs.

While the business was very successful selling a range of well-known brands of new tractors, telehandlers and other agricultural machinery, changes in the business environment and their stage of life resulted in Brian and Jill rethinking their role in the industry.

Supply chain issues and uncertain delivery times stretching to years have taken the shine off selling agricultural machinery, not just for Brian and Kerr Ag, but for many dealerships and frustrated staff.

Brian also wanted to continue with a low-overhead operation which had proved successful at Katanning, but that went against the obvious industry trend for larger dealerships to grow, leaving fewer areas for smaller traders to operate in.

"The industry is always changing and for me selling machinery just wasn't the fun it once was," said Brian last week, explaining the decision to sell and move on.

"When you want to buy, you want to buy now, so dealing with customer's expectations was not comfortable the last two years - I've never seen that (the length and uncertainty of delivery times) before in my lifetime," he said.

"I always wanted to go (retire) on my own terms and I was near enough to retirement age (he is 63), so the timing seemed right.

"Over the years we have had many good customers right across the State and we appreciate that.

"Many have become friends and selling the business doesn't mean we are cutting ties with them, it just means we might not see them as often as we once did."

The Kerr family association with farm machinery goes back to Brian's grandmother Annie in the late 1940s and early 1950s at Salmon Gums.

Widowed relatively early, Annie Kerr ran a general store in Salmon Gums that "sold everything, as you did in those days", according to Brian.

She also employed a handyman who proved to have the knack of tinkering recalcitrant trucks and tractors spluttering back into life.

So Annie built a small workshop beside the shop and AV Kerr & Co was launched in the mid 1940s.

"The (farm machinery) business morphed out of that," Brian said.

His father worked in the mines at Norseman and returned to Salmon Gums in 1966, taking on a farm and the machinery repairs business.

Under Paddy Kerr's stewardship the business became a Massey Ferguson 'sub dealer' and, as PH Kerr & Co, became a full Massey Ferguson dealership in 1972.

"That was our business - selling Massey Ferguson headers," Brian said.

"The 585 and 587 headers were small and simple compared to the rather more complex 28 tonne machines of today, but our business was built on them."

Brian came to Perth to complete his education with a fitting and turning apprenticeship and to play football for Swan Districts.

He met Jill, from Miling, who was trained as a primary school teacher.

After marrying, the couple moved to Salmon Gums and Brian joined his father in the business in 1983, while Jill taught at Grass Patch Primary School.

By 1985 it became clear PH Kerr & Co should relocate to Esperance, where there was no Massey Ferguson dealership.

That move was completed by 1987.

Brian and Jill moved to Esperance in 1989 and established a family home there.

A year later Massey Ferguson ran into financial trouble and PH Kerr & Co was without its main line.

"They were tough times without a tractor to sell," Brian acknowledged.

"Tillage equipment was what got us through, Gason was a good brand for us.

"I really admire my father for his resilience during that time."

By the 1990s things had improved.

Paddy retired and Brian took over the business.

"There's always twists and turns in this industry and you go through periods of growth," Brian said.

"In the late '90s the business took off.

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"With AGCO (formed out of a merger of Massey Ferguson Australia and the local distributor of Iseki tractors in 1994) we got some high horsepower tractors, in 1998 Gleaner (combine harvesters) came back to us, we got Challenger (tracked tractors) in 2008 and for a few years we had CLAAS as well before they decided to go with Harvest Centre."

In 2008 Brian saw an opportunity at Katanning and the area west of there, initially to sell second-hand machinery, primarily trade-ins from the Esperance dealership.

The Katanning dealership was opened that year and it grew to rival the Esperance business.

"They were interesting times, at one stage we had 28 staff working for us, it just went nuts," he said.

"I spent a lot of time travelling between the two branches."

Eventually, with their three children having completed university and established themselves in their own careers - eldest daughter Denby is a lawyer, son Rhett is an accountant and auditor in London and youngest daughter Jenae has a commercial management role in Perth - Brian and Jill decided to ease their workload.

The Esperance branch of the business was sold to Agwest Machinery in 2017 and Brian and Jill moved to Mandurah - Brian is an avid yachtsman so they needed to be near the coast - running the business at Katanning weekdays and returning home at weekends.

Throughout most of its existence PH Kerr & Co has sold the Massey Ferguson brand.

"It has been our brand right through - it continues to be a main brand and it gets good respect from customers," Brian said.

"We were brought up with it so I guess there's a little bit of Massey Ferguson in our blood."

Brian intends to take a few months off and go sailing over summer, but the sale of Kerr Ag might not mean the end of his involvement with farm machinery or the loss of more than 40 years hands-on experience and knowledge to the industry.

"A few doors have opened for me already," he said.

"I'll still be involved in some way.

"A lot of gratitude goes out to all of our customers over a long period of time for their support for Kerr Ag."