I wonder how this is going to affect parts and service. Judging from other people's online comments I have always thought Fabick was one of the better Cat dealers . . . https://www.equipmentworld.com/dealers/article/15836215/caterpillar-to-acquire-fabick-cat-dealership
Fabick is our local cat dealer also. The fabick family has been in court for a couple years over ownership/succession issues. The article I read on fabick said sales of over a billion per year . Probably not a lot of buyers to put together a package to buy them out. Kind of sad, but not surprising to see it end after 5 generations. I think we will continue to see manufacturers take over ownership from large and small dealer groups. Manitowoc/Grove now runs a dealership network, liebherr has never had dealerships. I think the agriculture sector is going to end up going this direction also.
As I understand it this is a dealer principle secession issue aggravated by one of the (now formal) dealer principle’s behavior. Cat is also getting VERY aggressive with dealership conformity and performance. They are holding dealers feet to the fire.
Sounds like Doug Fabick is a real a-hole and resents Jere Fabick or is jealous of him.
1st Generation builds it 2nd Generation builds on it 3rd Generation only knows what it's like to have it and enjoys it without any work 4th Generation takes it for granted 5th Generation gets in an armed conflict with cops in Florida. Too bad..
Locally Foley bought out Martin Caterpillar 17 years ago. Martin was the second oldest Cat dealer in the network. Leadership dies, times change, later generations want to walk a different path. Succession planning is anything but simple. Anytime you see a 3rd or later business that is still serving customers well there has been a tremendous training effort put forth by each generation to keep the business relevant. Add in each generation seeing a different business climate, having more fingers in the pie, and government taxes on each estate those businesses have my respect.
There are a lot of 3rd-4th gen CAT dealers. It is going to get interesting
I think CM's analysis is actually pretty accurate. The 3rd or 4th generation feels entitled and thinks things will just keep rolling along like they always have and they don't have to put much effort in or the same effort earlier generations did. It takes a lot of work to keep a large operation going. You often have to pivot and have back up plans if the economy takes a dump. Small outfits have to as well but the bigger a company the harder they can fall.
I think it's the heart, soul and ass the early pioneers had to put in to build the business that the later generations have no experience feeling. Not saying later generations are any less than the ones that came before them, just saying it has to be a different experience. Now I just wish I was a 3-4th generation Cat dealer family member... No clue what I would do but I'd give it one hell of a go!
Are we talking cranes? I know power screen is the Denver equipment dealer and I heard KC just changed to a dealer under central power. Lost a lot of their mechanics due to severe cuts to benefits. I heard working for liebherr directly though was a really good position. Been around a couple machines fabik was supposed to renew, absolute disasters all of thwm had to go back for big fixes.
Yeah, the cranes are all factory direct. Our central power has a liebherr sign, but its only for the dirt equipment, and maybe the scrap sorter machines. I can't buy any liebherr crane parts from central power.