Morrinsville, Waikato-based tractor and machinery sales company Power Farming Group powers ahead with overseas expansion

Brett Maber says in New Zealand a bad year for tractor sales is 3500, in Australia it's 14,000 and in the US, in a good or bad year, it's 250,000. Photo / Getty Images

A policy of returning 100 per cent of profits to the business empowered Power Farming Group to achieve overseas expansion and annual revenue of $400 million, director Brett Maber says.

Maber, guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Institute of Directors Waikato and third-generation shareholder of the family-owned tractor sales sector heavyweight, later said Power Farming had made bold decisions and taken calculated risks in expanding within New Zealand, into Australia and last year the United States, but its confidence had been backed by a strong balance sheet.

The Morrinsville, Waikato-based independent tractor and machinery sales company started in 1948 as Maber Motors, a one-man operation from which his grandfather, Laurie Maber, sold and serviced tractors and implements to the local farming community.

In 1977, Laurie's son Geoff, who joined the business on leaving school, formed a separate wholesale company called Power Farming after securing the rights to distribute a revolutionary 4-wheel drive Japanese-made tractor in New Zealand.

Against all expectations, it sold like hot cakes.

Today, Power Farming, wholly owned by Geoff and his wife and sons Brett and Craig, employs more than 400 people across three trading groups: in New Zealand a wholesale and retail distribution business of more than 20 dealerships either wholly or jointly owned; a wholesale distributor in Australia; and a wholesale, single franchise-owned distribution operation based in Atlanta, run by Craig Maber.

Brett Maber, the group's marketing director, said revenue from the Australian operation, which was started in 2004 and does not own dealerships, was now about $150m a year.

Power Farming's opportunity to move into the US came by securing exclusive distribution rights to Deutz-Fahr tractors there.

Maber said the group had 20-25 per cent of the New Zealand market, having sold 25,000 new tractors and 100,000 pieces of equipment in this country.

He told the institute's meeting the group had taken a one-only franchise approach to the US because of the huge size of the market.

"In New Zealand a bad year for tractor sales is 3500. In Australia it's 14,000. In the US, in a good or bad year, it's 250,000." And some of those tractors were the size of a large room, he said.

Maber said the family's appointment of a chief executive, Bruce Nixon, 12 years ago and the decision to appoint independent directors in the early 2000s when Power Farming was rapidly growing had also been critical steps in its successful growth.

The objective and unbiased views and input of former accountant and experienced company director Jeremy Rickman, Sydney-based equities investor Trent Petersonand Gallagher Group director Bruce Munro supported the efforts of the family and Power Farming's staff to meet the company's goals, he said.

Asked for his message to small to medium companies with an eye to expansion and an international foray, Maber advised "backing your ability to do the job and pulling the trigger on your ideas".

"Make sure it happens – a lot of people are a little conservative. Do the due diligence, be bold enough to make those decisions and back it up with a lot of hard work."