CASTLE Douglas-headquartered Gordons Construction Equipment has ambitious growth plans after being appointed by Develon to expand its territory to cover the whole of Scotland earlier this year.
The firm was already a dealer for the full Develon range in the south west and Borders regions, as well as central Scotland and Cumbria.
Following the territory expansion, Gordons has been on a recruitment drive and has its sights set on growing its market share and potentially opening more depots in the future.
Sales director Kevin Fraser told Project Plant the historic business, which started life manufacturing turnip sowers before expanding into the likes of ploughs, pulpers and cheese presses, has come a long way over the years.
“James Gordon Ltd, as the company is known, was established in 1865,” he explained. “It is still a family-owned business today. We first got into construction equipment with Doosan in 2017. That was originally to take on the areas of Dumfries & Galloway and Cumbria and the Scottish Borders. The expectation then was to sell in the region of 25-30 machines a year, which we probably did within the first six months.
“In 2018, we were approached by Doosan to take on central Scotland when Scotia Plant held the territory. Latterly, we started talking to Develon, as they’re called now, to take on the whole of Scotland, and continuing to be exclusive in Cumbria also.”
As well as the Castle Douglas HQ, Gordons has depots in Dumfries, Wigtownshire, Galston, and Strathaven. The firm also has a satellite location in Carlisle.
To service the expanded territory, Leigh Dalgleish, Robert Blennie and David Moir have been recruited to the sales team, while extra field-based service engineers have also been added.
Kevin described the extra responsibility as a ‘challenge’, but one the business is relishing. He believes there are advantages for customers too, with multi-depot customers now having only one point of contact and a less fragmented dealer network to navigate.
“Develon is the only brand we work with,” Kevin added. “Develon as a partner is certainly good to work with. Between the dealer and the customer, it works well.
“With a wide range of products, from the one-tonne micro digger up to the 40-tonne dump truck, we’ve got a selection that suits most plant companies.”
An early advantage of being the sole Develon dealer in Scotland was seen at ScotPlant 2024, which Kevin described as a ‘great success’ for the business. The firm came away from the Royal Highland Centre with lots of enquiries and demo requests, while the latest innovations – including the new DD130-7 15.3-tonne dozer and the latest version of the DX140LC-7K 14.6-tonne crawler excavator – attracted plenty of interest over the weekend.
Gordons prides itself on being a service-based company, with ‘rapid’ support and parts delivery described as vital in helping to ‘move the metal’ and generate repeat business. Kevin described current market conditions in the industry as ‘tough’, with several potential customers holding off on making investment decisions due to delays in projects starting and waiting to see if interest rates will fall. Business costs across the board are also high, leading to a more volatile environment.
For Gordons though, the long-term plan is simple: increase sales and grow accordingly.
“We’ve sold a lot of micro-diggers and eight-tonne machines, so the smaller end of the market has been quite popular recently,” Kevin revealed. “The 14-tonne market has been quiet this year, which would generally be the housing market machine. We’ve sold a few bigger machines – 30-tonne+ – and had a good year on loading shovels. We’ve had a few dump trucks away as well for muck-shifting.
“We need to grow the expanded area and try to regain the market share advantage that the old dealer used to have. As we develop that, that will decide where we go with infrastructure, depots, staff. We need to shift the metal first, keep supporting the customer, and then we’ll decide where we’re going location-wise. We see this as a two to three-year project to get up to selling over 300 machines in Scotland a year.”
