International accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers yesterday confirmed it had taken over the administration of Western Australia-based Agro Holdings Limited (AHL) which owns Bird Farm Equipment dealerships in places like Dubbo and Wellington.

But the receiver/manager dismissed talk of job losses and maintained the dealerships in NSW would continue to trade as “going concerns”.

Speaking from Perth, accountant Geoff Totterdell said the company’s troubles had arisen from climatic factors in Western Australia including “the worst drought in 120 years”.

He said while the western NSW dealerships continued to be successful, the Western Australian operations were struggling as farmers reined in their spending.

But Mr Totterdell said it was his “intent” that the company would trade out of its difficulties with only one small dealership in WA being forced to shut down.

He said staff of the accounting firm already were inspecting the dealerships in NSW.

Agro Holdings Limited was formed in 1998 and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in May 1999. The company’s registered office is in Nedlands, Western Australia.

It owns a network of farm machinery dealerships in Western Australia and NSW with the dealerships in the east part of the company’s Bird Farm Equipment division.

Testra’s White Pages list Bird Farm Equipment dealerships at Wellington, Dubbo, Warren, Gilgandra, Bourke, Parkes, Condobolin and Coonamble.

Deere and Co, with headquarters in the United States, is the principal supplier of farm machinery to the AHL network. The range extends from utility lawn mowers to the largest broadacre farm prime mover.

At June 30 of last year AHL employed 220 staff and reported sales of more than $120 million. At the time the company claimed to have traded profitably since its inception.

Chairman of the board is Peter Griffiths who was employed for 37 years by the John Deere organisation in Australia, finishing as managing director. Managing director is Dick Selwood who has worked in the agricultural machinery industry for 33 years and is the present chairman of the National John Deere Dealer Council.

In his “review”, as part of the company’s 2000 annual report, Mr Griffiths said the company had continued to pursue the strategy of acquiring established dealerships in stable areas of potential in the eastern states of Australia. The addition of the Parkes and Condobolin dealerships to those acquired in the previous year brought the Agro dealer group in NSW to a total of seven.

“Those dealerships in total traded at satisfactory sales and profit levels and made the major contribution to Agro’s results,” he said.

In the broadacre grain growing areas of Western Australia, the chairman said, AHL’s market share continued to be “very satisfactory”, but a sharp fall in demand for large tractors and harvesting machines which made up the bulk of the company’s sales caused revenues and profits to be lower than forecast.

“This decline in sales can almost certainly be attributed to an expectation of reduced income by our farmer customers due to continuing relatively low commodity prices and a difficult seeding and growing season,” he said.

Mr Griffiths said the sharply-reduced market in Western Australia “highlights the soundness of the strategy of developing a strong eastern states dealer network to act as a balance to the more volatile market in Western Australia”.

In his report, Mr Selwood concurred the NSW dealerships had not suffered the decline in sales like those in Western Australia and had helped to underpin the company’s results. “In NSW the dealerships have performed very well and have increased market share with both tractor and combine harvester sales,” he said.