STARCO appoints Agriest its aftermarket distributor in France

As of 1 January 2018, Agriest will act as the French market distributor for STARCO’s aftermarket range. This new agreement allows Agriest to offer its customers the STARCO product range, excepting made-to-measure and dual wheels. Agriest will primarily distribute STARCO’s wheel and tyre solutions for tractors, utility vehicles and agricultural implements; wheel and tyre solutions for lawn and garden will be handled by PVP, a subsidiary of the Sterenn & Co group.

The appointment of Agriest as French market distributor reflects a realisation that becoming a stronger partner in the OEM business also requires STARCO to adopt a different business model when serving the replacement market. “Today, we have primarily aftermarket that supports our OEM business, not traditional ‘wholesaler’ aftermarket as we used to have,” explains Thomas Ballegaard, chief commercial officer at STARCO. Examples of this are STARCO’s European trailer centre and solid tyres sales in selected markets. “In general, we focus on partnering with national distributors and making partnerships that creates value for them, us and the end-user.”

Agriest is also a subsidiary of Sterenn & Co Group. The firm was set up in 1980 in Scey-sur-Saône and swiftly gained a leading position as a supplier of spare parts and farm equipment to France’s agricultural sector. It also supplies various spare parts for other industries. “We look forward to the arrival of the stock to start promoting the range in our dealer network,” says Aurélien Royer, product manager at Agriest. “STARCO’s products portfolio allows us to complete our range of tires and wheels and is in line with our position. We are seeing a strong demand for these products in the aftermarket. It is, as a specialist, our purpose to bring the solution to the market.”

STARCO states that the partnership will also give its OEM partners in France easier access to spare parts.