Florida Coast Equipment recently moved in to its new facility in West Palm Beach and celebrated with an open house.
Florida Coast Equipment recently moved in to its new facility in West Palm Beach and celebrated with an open house. A large crowd was on hand to tour the facilities, view the equipment, and enjoy the music and a barbeque lunch.
The company's new facility includes a 23,000 sq. ft. (2,136 sq m) building sitting on 3 acres. Nearly 18,000 sq. ft. (1,672 sq m) of the building is dedicated to the service department and new equipment storage.
Todd Bachman, the president of the company said, “We made a heavy investment on the shop side because we want to move away from the perception of a dealer being primarily a sales center and move much more to a service center mentality.
“I think what we have really worked to do is at the end of the day we want to be the premier dealership of our size in south Florida. We don't want to be the biggest or the most profitable but we want to be a premier dealership. What that means is that we have the parts to keep our customers running and the service techs that are trained and will be efficient. All of those things are what we want to be.
“The key to this is that when you get up in the morning and you make a living off of your equipment we want to be the place you come. The way to do that is through service. Anyone can sell a machine but can you keep the guy running and can you sell him a second machine. At the end of the day that happens through parts and service. That's really what we want to be.
“That is what I tell my guys on the parts counter or in service. When someone calls he isn't calling to say hello, he has a problem. Our job is to keep him running and to understand that he is feeding his kids through that product and if you think of it that way, through that mind set, you are more willing to help him through some situations. You are more willing to make that extra call.”
The location has a lot of indoor storage space for equipment because, according to Bachman, Florida is tough on equipment.
“If you have new equipment on your lot for a few months and it is sitting out in the sun it can get worn pretty quickly. So it is nice that when a customer gets a piece of equipment it looks new.”
In addition to the shop space, the building has a large parts department and office space. The West Palm Beach facility has 22 employees, but that will increase to the mid-thirties in the next few months. Most of that will be support staff including three or more parts and service personnel.
Florida Coast Equipment specializes in Kubota and a few short line manufacturers for things like attachments. These include Land Pride and Bush Hog. The company has the full line of Kubota equipment including lawn and garden, agricultural, and construction.
“Construction will continue to be our primary line but with the new turf line coming out that will be a large part of our business,” said Bachman.
Working with Bachman in management of the West Palm Beach branch are Bill Campbell, general manager; Shea Millea, service manager; and Ali Azad, parts manager. Jason Watson is overall product support manager.
The West Palm Beach branch replaced the office in Boynton Beach and will be the corporate headquarters for now. The company recently broke ground on a new facility in Fort Pierce, which eventually will become the company's headquarters. It will be open late third or early fourth quarter of this year. In addition to the West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce branches, the company also has a branch in Naples.
The open house also gave the company the opportunity to showcase the new Kubota line of skid steer loaders. They had four at the open house so customers could look them over.
“Over the past few years the Kubota construction line has exploded and this is what we have had to do to keep up with them so we can service those products,” said Bachman.
The new West Palm Beach branch is located at 357 Pike Road just west of the Florida Turnpike and north of Southern Blvd.
For more information, call 561/369-0414 or visit www.floridacoasteq.com.
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