Rural supplies retailer RD1 is going mobile to meet a demand from dairy farmers.
The company has 55 stores nationwide and today starts its first mobile store with an 11.5m-long truck carrying 200 to 250 items depending on the season. Stock will include pipe fittings, gumboots and 200-litre containers of
cleansers.
RD1 general manager Nick Berry said dairy farms in the South Island were generally larger and more spread out than in the North Island and so it was hard to justify having a store in each smaller service town.
"The result is that farmers have to travel long distances to pick up supplies, which means precious time off farm," Berry said.
"It makes economic sense to our business and it's an innovative and practical solution to what our farmers have asked for."
The first vehicle would operate out of the company's Winton store in Southland and a second truck was planned for the new year from a new Rangiora store opening next month.
The potential for mobile stores was huge, Berry said. Up to 30 per cent of the turnover for any one store could come through a truck.
The mobile stores would callon dairy farmers initially.
Mossburn in Southland is one of the areas to be serviced by the first truck and farmer Mike Heenan believes it will be enthusiastically welcomed. "Having to send someone out for several hours to collect supplies is frustrating, to say the least."
