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At Hutcheon & Pearce, we believe in hiring the best and giving them all the resources they need to grow their career. Case in point is Craig Thorp, who recently stepped into the role of Temora Branch Manager. Here we catch up with Thorpie to see what it means when we invest in “one of our own”.
Growing up in Sydney, Craig Thorp trained as a plant mechanic and had a career driving trucks before moving to Temora, the hometown of his wife Tanya. It was in Temora that Craig first started working in Agriculture, first for a farmer and then a farming contractor before starting as a technician with Hutcheon & Pearce.
Craig – or Thorpie as we know him – has clocked up over 13 years with H&P over a couple of stints, including time as Temora Branch Service Manager, a short run as Parts Manager and now taking on Branch Manager in August.
“I definitely wouldn’t class myself as a city boy anymore. I've been in Temora for 20 years now and I love the lifestyle we have here. It’s a great place to raise our kids and I spend lots of my time outside of work driving my five kids around to various sports and school activities.
“I’m excited to take on the role as Branch Manager and do the company proud. I’m really grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had here over the years, and I've got a huge passion for the branch and the company and I look forward to growing the team and serving our customers.”
For Thorpie, recruiting technicians is his big focus, as well as growing the Parts department.
“Technicians are in high demand right now. It is very difficult to recruit techs as the industry is very volatile, at the moment, with people moving around a lot. We recently tried something different, creating a recruitment video focused on bringing technicians into the branch. We’ve tried the ads in the paper and on TV before, but we felt it was time to try and get into that social media space. The video reached 28,000 people and had lots of comments, which is what you want.
“I really want the techs out there reading this to know that there’s great growth potential with Hutcheon & Pearce. I can speak from experience, starting out as a technician and now making my way through the ranks to Branch Manager. There’s a lot of support and training. A few years ago, as I started in the Service Manager’s position, I attended our Manage course and that training really assisted in growing me into that role and now this one.
“Every technician can also learn through John Deere University, which is available to them straight away. This is great for mechanics who come to us with light and more so heavy vehicle experience and make the transition into Ag. We also have courses to help with upskilling and building proficiency. Anything we can do to train people up, and promote one of our own, we do it if we can.”
Thorpie says the other big focus for the Temora team is customer service.
“I think no matter what branch of H&P you’re at, customers are always our biggest focus. Without our customers, we have no reason to open the doors, so customer service and satisfaction is always a huge focus.
“Here in Temora, we’ve got a fairly young team in the service department, and they’ve really dug deep in the last 12 months while we’ve been short staffed to keep customers satisfied to the best of our ability. I think they’ve done an outstanding job and I’m really proud of their efforts. Continuing to build that team to support our customer base is a high priority for me.”
So too, is maintaining support for his team. Thorpie sees the growth of Hutcheon & Pearce over recent years as an advantage for current and potential customers as well as his team.
“It all comes back to that backup and support. As Hutcheon & Pearce has grown and our dealer network has expanded, it has allowed for greater support for the customers because our team has more resources to pull from, including a broader network of John Deere experts and highly skilled, industry-best technicians. TECSight Remote Support is also obviously a great asset and customers gain a lot of benefit from being able to call up and ask for help remotely. Plus, we’ve got the Field Services team out there physically on-farm to assist customers in the field with machine startup and optimisation.
“We sell great machines with great technology built in, and we’ have the know-how to help you get the most from it for your farming operation. It’s not something every dealer can say and the people of the Temora are very well catered for here.
“We’re going into what looks like it could be a damp harvest here, which is never exciting, but most customers are taking it in their stride at this stage. There’s obviously some disappointment, particularly to the northwest of Temora where there was flooding earlier in the year and customers weren’t able to complete their sowing program, and I think we’ll see harvesting into February again this season, but we’ll be here, ready to help as needed to keep our farmers moving.”
When not focused on customers, Thorpie and the team are focused on the Temora community, sponsoring local footy clubs, local agricultural shows and volunteering their time at community events.
“A couple of the apprentices play for local Rugby Union and Rugby League teams, and we try to support those local clubs. Very shortly we’ll be going into our show season, so that’ll mean traveling around to a couple of the local shows, and Temora Public School is having their school fair in a few weeks, so we’ve organized to have our H&P branded barbecue there to just contribute in that small way.
“It’s important from a Hutcheon & Pearce perspective to support the local community as much as we can. As a company we believe in contributing to strong regional communities. Temora is a great place to live and work and we want to do all we can to see it thrive. And with employers like Hutcheon & Pearce in town, there’s truly great opportunities for young ones to build a fulfilling career here too. Just look at me.”
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