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FOURTH generation farm machinery business G and J East is moving boldly into the future with refreshed branding and a newly expanded showroom and customer service centre on Goldsworthy Street, Kadina.

About 130 people, including clients, suppliers and staff, gathered to celebrate on Friday, March 22.

The extended building is 192 metres long and 22m wide, providing space for indoor display of the many brands of farm machinery sold and serviced by the firm.

These include Fendt, Gleaner and Massey Ferguson under the Agco banner; CLAAS and Amazone under the Landpower banner; Simplicity and Morris Air Seeders, Nitro and Hardi sprayers, Deutz-Fahr tractors and some smaller brands.

Long-time dealer principal Colin Adams has taken the newly developed role of sales manager, and Stephen Murdoch has come on board as dealer principal.

Colin said it is understood the company is the longest-serving Agco dealer in the Southern Hemisphere.

He led acknowledgment of the long service of many staff members, including Gary Kotz, David Murphy and Anthony “Spec” Woodley, who have worked for the company for 48, 39 and 40 years respectively.

Graham East, 91, was joined by his son Mathew and grandson Alex in reflecting on the many changes they have seen at the company, founded in 1927.

Graham said his father Beaumont and mother Winifred arrived in Kadina in 1947, having been sent from Mallala to open a branch of the family company to service northern YP.

Graham left school in 1948 and started working for his parents in January 1949.

He recalls paying a surprise visit to an old-school farmer between Kadina and Wallaroo, who was sowing a crop with a team of 10 horses, and trying to convince him it was time to buy a tractor.

“When I started work, farm properties around the area were about 600 acres, with 200ac of crop, 200ac of grassland, a few sheep and some cows, and most of the farmers were on the farm most of the time,” he said.

“Tractors operated at two and a half miles an hour, pulling scarifiers, combines and harvesters, with a cut of 10 or 12 feet.

“This resulted in doing about 25 acres a day.

“For the young fellas here today, that wouldn’t seem to be much good.

“Wheat crops yielded about eight bags to the acre, so for 200 bags of grain a day, which was about eight tons of wheat, was 10 hours of work.

“There were Sunshine Massey Harris dealers at Warooka, Maitland, Moonta, Kadina, Bute and Port Broughton.”

Proprietor and director Mathew East took over management of G and J East in 1985, a year after the company moved from Taylor to Goldsworthy Street to establish the first premises in the town’s new industrial precinct.

“We were dealing with 1500 farming families between Port Broughton and Agery, and there would have been 2500 farming families on the whole of Yorke Peninsula,” he said.

“Now we work with farmers from Port Broughton down, covering the whole of YP, and there are fewer than 500 farmers in that area,” he said.

“Change is all around us and things are going to continue to change — it’s up to G and J East to keep up with that.”

Mathew said the company was built on the business philosophy of a three-way partnership with staff, clients and its suppliers.

“All three are equally as important, and always have been,” he said.

East Farm Machinery Group general manager Alex East spoke about the company’s dedication to building and maintaining long-term relationships in the farming community.

“We are seeing a major shift in Australia, with large multinationals purchasing machinery dealerships,” he said.

“We have a customer-first focus, as opposed to a boardroom-outwards focus.”

Alex thanked the company’s clients for their ongoing support.

“I hope we can continue to meet your requirements now and in the future.”