Distributors of tree care and wood waste recycling equipment from around the world met for a week of sales and service seminars, product demonstrations, and plant tours during the 2008 Bandit Dealer Meeting, held every three years at the Remus, Mich., corporate headquarters.
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Bandit Industries invited dealers from 22 countries on six continents for a United Nations-like conference filled with valuable discussion, sales and service seminars, and product demonstrations. The focus of the nearly week-long summit, held at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mount Pleasant and Bandit Corporate Headquarters in Remus, was the emerging markets in biomass and wood energy.
“Our dealers are the ones out there on the frontlines everyday selling our equipment,” says Bandit President Jerry Morey. “We feel it is important to keep them informed of growing trends, and in this case, to make them aware of the enormous energy possibilities in the United States with regards to biomass energy. What better time to do that than at the Dealer Meeting?”
Bandit produces wood waste reduction equipment, such as chippers and horizontal grinders, that are able to produce a valuable end product for these markets.
Central Michigan University’s Steve Lawrence joined the event as keynote speaker during the welcome reception on Wednesday evening, discussing the savings and economies made possible by the university’s use of wood waste for their energy needs to an attentive audience. Morey offered supporting remarks on the emerging fuel wood markets both locally and internationally, and encouraged attendees to familiarize themselves with the ongoing market trends.
The format of the Bandit Dealer Meeting stays fairly consistent from one meeting to the next, with sales sessions, demonstrations, and service training. One of the highlights of the conference was the two-hour “What Works For You” session, a new addition to the conference this year. A panel of Bandit dealers presented their ideas of ‘what works for them’ when selling Bandit equipment. Each spoke on a topic that best suited their territory, ranging from ‘Selling in a Down Market’, ‘Old Fashioned Selling’, ‘Biomass Energy Markets’, and ‘Stump Grinder Selling’. Attendees were given tips on how to be successful in various types of markets, straight from the mouths of their peers. Coincidentally, all of the members of the panel are members of the Top 10 Dealer Club for 2007, an honor awarded to dealers based on unit volume and sales volume criteria.
“If nothing else, we want our dealers to know that they are not alone,” says Sales Manager Casey Gross. “We have dealers out there who’ve been with us for over 20 years; they know how to combat certain issues and how to deal with market slumps. The ‘What Works For You’ session was a great confidence booster for some of our struggling dealers; we hope they walked away thinking ‘If it can work for them, maybe it can work for us.”
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Denny Knoll, owner of Cal-Line Equipment in Livermore, Calif., was present at the very first Bandit Dealer Meeting in 1993. He has seen some very positive changes over the nearly two decades.
“Bandit puts on one heck of a show,” Knoll says. “It’s always great to come here and see the folks you talk with [on the phone] every day, and to get a look behind the scenes.” He continues, “This year, Bandit really outdid themselves. The sessions were great: to the point, informative; everything was extremely organized. This was by far the best Dealer Meeting yet; everyone at Bandit deserves a pat on the back.”
Knoll has been in the top five of all Bandit dealers since they joined the Bandit team in 1988. He earned the title of #1 Bandit Dealer in Unit Volume in 2007; a title his dealership has earned more often than not.
“We know it’s been a tight year for everyone,” says Marketing Manager Ray Eluskie. “We wanted to make sure that the time and money our dealers spent away from their dealerships was time well spent.” Eluskie and the planning committee spent the better half of a year aligning guest speakers, coordinating events and planning sessions that would resonate with such a diverse crowd. “We had many attendees who spoke English as a second language, or not at all. Not to mention, markets vary drastically from one part of the country to the next, and even more drastically from one corner of the world to the next,” explains Eluskie. “It was a challenge to pull together all the core ideas and expectations that we felt were essential for the universal ‘Bandit’ dealer to be made aware of.”
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“The amount of compliments we received this year was unprecedented,” adds Eluskie. “It made all the hard work and long hours worth while.”
The grand finale for many was the Demo Day, held at the 220-acre corporate headquarters’ demonstration site. Attendees witnessed an array of equipment processing a steady diet of wood waste, including six hand-fed chippers, six stump grinders, three whole tree chippers, and two Beast Recyclers. The all new Bandit Model 1490XP drum-style chipper and the Model 2000XP stump grinder were introduced to Bandit dealers for the first time at this event. Also a big hit was the Beast Knife System, which allows you to quickly and easily convert your Beast Recycler into a whole tree chipper, with a simple change of cutting tools. The dealers were very interested in this demonstration, and flocked to the chip pile when the demonstration was complete.
Paul Caldwell of Global Recycling Solutions in the UK was a key player in developing this new system for the European biomass energy markets. They were looking for a machine that could efficiently produce a clean, dimensional chip. “From the minute we saw it run, we knew the Beast with knives was it,” says Caldwell. “The chip quality is just fantastic.”
“That’s one thing that has always excited us about working with Bandit,” Caldwell continues, “They listen.” Many of the new products and improvements made to Bandit equipment often come from the ideas of Bandit dealers, which is one of the primary benefits that Bandit receives from hosting regular Dealer Meetings. “Bandit supports what we do and takes our suggestions seriously, because we have the evidence to back it up,” adds Caldwell. Global Recycling Solutions is Bandit’s #1 Dealer in Sales Volume for 2007.
Also on hand was a collection of Bandit’s vendors. Representatives from Caterpillar, Power Great Lakes, Kubota Engine America, Superior Diesel, John Deere, Cummins, and Deutz were present, and provided support and sponsorships for various events throughout the week. Bandit also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first Model 100 Brush Bandit chipper, which was developed by Mike Morey, Sr. in 1983.