Forfar-based farm machinery specialist AM Agri (Alan Mackay Machinery) has been appointed the Unimog dealer for Mercedes-Benz Trucks UK in Scotland.
The company, which is jointly owned and managed by Alan Mackay and service director Ross Anderson, also has a branch in Aberdeen and currently sells and services tractors, cultivators, hay, grass and potato equipment, silage wagons, diet feeders and other miscellaneous farming machinery.
Mr Mackay said the franchise would initially be run from Forfar but within the next year or two a third branch will be opened further south and it will become the Unimog hub and sales base.
He said he approached Mercedes-Benz about the franchise after putting a customer’s Unimog through its paces, and it had been a lengthy process.
He said: “I was mightily impressed and quickly realised the vehicle’s commercial potential. If you stand still in business then you’re actually going backwards, so I was keen to grasp the opportunity and contacted the Unimog team to enquire about franchise opportunities.
“Having cleared the final hurdles, we’re now a fully-fledged Unimog dealer and very much looking forward to the next, exciting chapter in the story of our business.”
The company has invested heavily in product-specific tooling, parts inventory and technical training and is awaiting the imminent arrival of its first demonstrator, a U435 implement carrier.
Ross Paterson, head of special trucks at Mercedes-Benz Trucks UK, said that as an experienced and trusted supplier to the agricultural community, AM Agri was well placed to grow the Unimog’s share of a key market.
“We now look forward to working with the company team to develop opportunities in some of the other sectors in which the multi-talented Unimog also excels,” he said.
“There will certainly be a focus on forestry, but the Unimog is also ideally suited, for example, to utilities operations, highways management, and special emergency services applications.”
The Unimog range encompasses gross weights from 7.5 to 16.5 tonnes and is built around two core variants: the UGE implement carrier and the UHE extreme off-roader, which can be fitted with many different types of body. Both offer an unrivalled combination of all-terrain performance, on-road speed, fuel-efficiency and flexibility.
While AM Agri will be selling as well as servicing Unimogs, the manufacturer has also recently added another three names to the roll call of those authorised to provide maintenance, repair and parts back-up for the vehicles.
They are Blackburn’s Ciceley Commercials, Ferndown Commercials, of Wimborne, Dorset, and Rossetts Commercials, of Aldershot, in Hampshire.
