BAGMA Cover: Devon Garden Machinery
Devon Garden Machinery was first established in 1984 by Alan and Jeannette Dommett, located just outside of Torquay, Devon. Alan started the business following a career working at a Ransomes dealer which he did for 18 years. After over 30 years running a successful garden machinery business that has grown to cover Devon, Cornwall and Somerset for industry leading brands, Alan retired at age 75. Today sees three generations of his family working in the business with their main franchises being Toro, Iseki, Honda, Dennis Sisis, Husqvarna, Stiga and Mountfield. We spoke with husband-and-wife duo, Steve and Charlotte Dommett about their exciting new premises and how they remain a business focussed on good old-fashioned face to face sales.
There are three generations working in the business, who’s in the business and how have they fitted into to the running of it over the years?
Steve: I joined the business as soon as I left school as an apprentice. I studied at Evesham College where I completed the City and Guilds Parks and Garden Machinery Engineering qualification. I had always helped dad on Saturdays and in school holidays from a young age, so I didn’t really know much else and always had the idea I wanted to work in the business. Charlotte actually came into the business temporarily to cover a staff absence and then never left! Having her here has been great, someone that I trust completely and can offer the occasional shoulder to cry on. We have a good dynamic and very rarely clash which helps. We do try and keep work life and home life separate but that can’t always be the case, but we try our best.
In 2021, after lockdown, our son joined the business. He was working as an apprentice in the aerospace industry so immediately got furloughed early in the pandemic which allowed him to volunteer and give us a helping hand every so often as we remained partially operational. When it was time for him to go back to work, he announced that he would like to come and work with us, which we of course were delighted about! We never would have pushed him into it, but its lovely that he wants to be involved and so far, he seems to be enjoying it. We want to try and get him to work in every department to understand how everything works, that’s what I did and even now I can jump in and deal with parts or service jobs just to help, it’s also important to understand the different roles within the team.
You have very recently put up a brand-new/purpose-built premises. Was there a specific reason behind this and what changes have you seen to the business because of this?
We have been on this site for nearly 40 years, renting the previous buildings. Around 7 years ago we were approached by the land owner who explained they were selling some of the site to Aldi, as you can imagine, we were a bit worried about what would happen. But, she did offer to sell us the patch just above, approximately 1.5 acres, and we agreed that we would make the move when our lease came to an end. We thought that would be within a few years, but it has taken 7 years to get everything in place and we are so grateful to have been given the opportunity to stay here.
The building was ready for us to move into at the end of February 2023 and our old site was quickly demolished.
The finished result is worlds away from what we had before which started with my dad in a lean-to and a garden shed. As we grew, it became very disjointed and a bit of a rabbit warren with shipping containers and portacabins being used for offices and storage. This definitely impacted efficiencies with time taken up moving equipment around for space and trying to find people. The new place is a real treat for us all. Steve designed the layout and a family member projected managed for us, but the whole build has been such a group effort, myself, Charlotte and numerous members of the DGM team could be found coming in on weekends and evenings to lay floors, paint the walls, and even assist in constructing our own counter, which was designed by Ash a member of the team.
The new premises has instilled a new confidence within us, we actively encourage customers to come here, see the depot, have meetings with commercial customers, whereas before, we would always go to them. With the addition of a spacious showroom, we can layout the product better enabling visitors to browse. We now have a training room which is nearly finished, this will be great for customer training and for our manufacturers to utilise when they come here. Our service team now all have a bay each where they can work efficiently, and we have plenty of space for machines to move in and out of the workshop. One of my favourite additions is the new communal counter, we originally were going to have separate parts, service and sales areas but when we talked to the team, it was decided to have one central counter. This means everyone can cross over and help each other, as well as all be on the same page with what’s going on. It’s got a really welcoming feeling as we didn’t want to lose the personal touch that we had in our old reception.
Being more environmentally conscious was also an important addition, our new building has solar panels on the roof to generate power, battery storage as well as a rainwater harvesting system in place. We also have a recycling wash system for the wash area.
We have a great product range and now the premises to match it.
Are there any significant milestones you can recall from your time in business?
The building is obviously a huge milestone for us but in general we are just so proud of where the company has got to today. When dad started, he thought he would have half a dozen people working with him and look after some garden machinery in the Torbay area. But quite quickly after he started, he was approached by Jacobsen to be the dealer for Devon and Cornwall then a few years later he was approached by Toro to take on the franchise, a real milestone, we felt so proud.
We now look after Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and a bit of Dorset, so we have a large patch to cover which is a great deal more than my dad would have ever thought. Through the last 30 years we have picked up some great brands along the way which we are very proud of, we don’t chop and change so we like to think our loyalty to them is reflected in their support for us. We are actually one of the oldest established Iseki dealers in the country!
Are you hoping that the location and the introduction of these businesses next door to you will drive footfall?
Since the new premises has opened, we have noticed a lot more people coming to browse, we haven’t recorded any numbers, but my gut feeling is that the footfall has already increased.
We hope that the addition of the businesses next door will attract more people, whether it will be the right clientele, time will tell. We may have to adapt our product mix slightly to cater for the people that might be looking for lower value items. We also may have to look at our opening hours on a Saturday as well. We look forward to seeing how this will all work together.
DGM offers machine hire, what proportion of your business is hire?
Not a massive amount now but it is an area we want to grow. We now have a dedicated member of our team on the hire business. An area that we have developed from hiring equipment is our contracting services which was driven from some gaps we noticed in the process. As an example, we would get some sports businesses ring up and want to hire a certain piece of equipment, by the time we had been there, showed them how to use it and do a full handover, we realised we could have completed the job. Now we have an ex-head greenkeeper, who is passionate about turf, who manages this part of our business as this is definitely an area we see growing. Another plus to this work is that we are building good relationships with these businesses, so they also look to us for servicing and enquiring for new machines.
Where do you feel the demand is in the garden machinery market now?
Homeowner wise, people are definitely more aware of robotic mowers, it is now a massive part of our business. In the past people would come in looking at a ride-on mower and then we would introduce them to the robot mowers, but now they are coming in looking specifically for them, we have seen this year more than ever the customer wants wireless robots. We tend to get the mushroom effect with the robotic mowers; you sell one and then you have their brother interested and their neighbour and so on.
You do have to be fully invested in this product range and we now have someone totally dedicated to robots and that position has become necessary over a really short period of time. In reality, we could probably do with another salesperson, we simply cannot keep up with the demand. Although, I do think the market could change in the future, we deal with a lot of affluent, retired people with plenty of space for the robots, as well as the professional people that don’t have the time to cut their grass. In the future will retired people have that disposable income when they come to retirement age?
On the commercial side of things, we find a lot of the business comes from golf courses who love the Toro equipment. The golf industry will always be an important part of our business although, we don’t want to be fully reliant on it. We have room to expand with other businesses, especially holiday parks which we have an abundance of in this area.
How do you find the buying habits have changed over the years?
There is no doubt that during COVID we have lost out to the internet and probably continue to do so. However, online isn’t our goal, our preference is to sell face to face. There are a lot of dealers with ecommerce set ups and will likely ship boxes all over the country but that isn’t for us. Firstly, we don’t have the right set up for that and I am very much of the opinion, do it right, or don’t do it at all. Secondly, we prefer to have face to face interaction and build relationships. We are transparent that it may be cheaper online but to remember that you aren’t receiving the same service that DGM can offer. We simply aren’t willing to drop the price just to get the sale and compromise our values. A lot of our customers are prepared to pay a little bit extra to have the security of us being at the end of the phone, we do go that extra mile and that has resulted in a loyal customer base.
Are there any particular struggles of the business that stand out for you?
Recruitment! But we can touch on that further on.
The build has of course had an impact on cash flow and we couldn’t have picked a worse time to do it with prices of materials going up dramatically. Our build budget did go out the window, but we got to a stage where we had to finish it. It has cost us more, but we have a great end product and hopefully the increase in business from it will reap the rewards.
Are there any exciting plans to share going forward? What’s the future look like for DGM?
The building has been a huge achievement, we have a few bits to finish off here so once all that is done that will be a great feeling. We will definitely be planning a bit of a celebration, but I (Charlotte) won’t let it happen until everything is properly finished. It would be nice to have the opportunity to celebrate the milestone and say a big thank you to the team and contractors that have been involved.
Going forward we want to focus on two main areas for the business which is to grow our commercial division and keep up the momentum especially with the footfall in our new showroom. We are excited to see how with the new building and additional businesses next door will work.
How have you found Recruitment across the business? And are there any roles you struggle to recruit for?
Very difficult! Trying to find workshop staff is tricky but trying to find a parts assistant is harder. Parts is difficult because getting the younger generation excited about parts is an uphill struggle, they just don’t seem to be interested. They can go and earn as much if not more in places like Aldi etc. but then again, do they want to do that for the rest of their lives? It’s trying to make them realise that any introductory role can be a route to a higher position within the business. Nathan our operations manager joined as a mechanic, then he went into parts, was parts manager and now he is one below me (Steve), so there’s plenty of opportunity for progression.
Apprentices are a way we can get younger people into the industry, and we currently have three who are all keen to learn. We are proud to have Flis our first female mechanic and we would love to see more women in this department. A lot of the interest we have from younger people is through connections, if their family or friend works in the industry, they are more likely to consider working in it.
Any thoughts on how we can work together as an industry to bring new people in?
We do miss a trick in terms of trying to make the industry more appealing. People of all ages watch sports whether that be football, golf, rugby and all those playing surfaces wouldn’t be as they are without the machines we sell. Maybe that and the technology that’s involved needs to be highlighted more to get people excited about it. We could publicise how interesting this job could be. When you mention fixing lawnmowers, I think people picture a Flymo not a £100,000 machine which some of these specialist greens mowers can be. There is a lot to be excited about with these products.
How long have you been a BAGMA member?
A long time. It will be at least 30 years.
What BAGMA benefits have you used and is there anything you are looking to explore in the future?
We use their finance arm, tax and personnel support. We also use SafetyAid through BAGMA for all our health and safety and they are great. We have not yet used the installation training etc. but it is something we would like to look into in the future. We are excited to see how BAGMA will evolve with the new appointment of Nick Darking.