NZ Dairy Spring 2021

76 | nz dairy DAIRY SERVICES » Fieldtorque Taranaki Fieldtorque goes from strength to strength Virginia Wright W hen Carl Hinton, from Fieldtorque Taranaki says he’s always been passionate for Mas- sey Ferguson tractors it doesn’t take long to work out he’s not joking. Having spent his childhood riding in the cab next to his Dad on the big agricultural machinery which was part and parcel of the Hinton’s Contracting business, he knew he didn’t want to follow directly in those footsteps, but he didn’t move too far away from them either. Carl was finishing his apprenticeship as a heavy diesel mechanic with the only Massey Ferguson dealership in Taranaki when he heard they were about to close their doors and move back to their home base in Fielding. Four years previously his parents David and Kathryn Hinton had sold their agricultural contracting business to David’s brother Mark, and bought the original family farm just out of Stratford from his uncle Rob Hinton, but he knew they’d be up for another venture. “I knew they were as passionate as I was for the Massey Fergusons, so I talked to them about it and we brainstormed and found an old building on the main road, the old Stratford Press Printing building. We knocked some walls out and threw in some extra doors and added a lick of paint on the weekends, all on a very tight budget, and got into it. I was the mechanic, Mum was the office lady and Dad was the salesman.” The fledgling Fieldtorque Taranaki took on the AGCO franchise which gave them the dealership for what Carl describes as the three best brands of agricultural machinery: Fendt, Valtra and of course Massey Ferguson. That was 2006, Carl was 18, and the business has gone from strength to strength ever since, which Carl puts in part down to the fact that both he and his father are mechanics by trade. ‘We’re not salesmen as such, but we were both so passionate about the product we pushed it very hard. The whole business was based around service because as contractors we knew what bad service was about and what good service was about,” explains Carl. “So everything this business is built on is workshop service.” After a year Carl’s father went back to the family farm and a salesman was employed but his mother stayed on running the office. Their reputation for back-up and prompt service continued and Carl believes that was the key to them selling more tractors. Today the business has gone from being run by the original team of three to a team of 30, all housed in a new building they had designed to their Laura, David, Paula, Nicola and Carl Hinton. “We’re not salesmen as such, but we were both so passionate about the product we pushed it very hard. The whole business was based around service because as contractors we knew what bad service was about and what good service was about” Proud to continue to back Fieldtorque as they expand Ag Attachments Ltd are proud to support our dealer ‘Fieldtorque Taranaki Ltd’ with parts and aftersales service for our products +64 7 850 1990 parts@agattach.co.nz agattach.co.nz • Stoll Front End Loaders And Implements • Albutt Forks, Buckrakes And Grabs • Sauter Front Linkage And Pto’s • Anbo Grapples • Comet Spray Pumps • Dromone Hydraulic Pick Up Hitches • Euroduals Dual Wheels • Tanco Bale Slices & Shears • Posilux Overwidth Marker Light And Board Kits • To page 78 specifications on a site they bought in 2017. “We always dreamed about building a new dealership and we were selling Fendt, which is the Rolls Royce of tractors, so we purchased the best site in town. It’s on the main road at the north end of town which is the growing end, on a corner, with two entrances so you can drive through. It’s the old ITM site and we always thought it would be the best site for what we wanted.” At about the same time as the plans for the dealership were drawn up Kathryn Hinton was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer so, although the plans were tweaked and refined over the fol- lowing 14 months, she saw the basic design of the building that resulted before she died. “She’d be really happy with what we’ve done,” says Carl. “She died in 2019 and there’s a customer lounge in here which we’ve dedicated to her with a big memorial on the wall.” For Carl, as it was for his mother, it’s always the people that count. “We wouldn’t have been able to build this business without our very loyal customers and loyal hard working staff.”