The Space (Salon des Productions Animales – Carrefour Européen) opens this Tuesday morning at the Rennes exhibition center. Three days of agricultural fair in a complicated context for breeders with a big drought this summer, soaring prices of fertilizers, energy and raw materials.
Times are also tough for agricultural equipment dealers like the Mayennais Lesieur, present in particular in Mayenne, Soulgé-sur-Ouette and Craon. 25 sales representatives from the group are present at the show. The company has seen its activity slow down and it expects a complicated year 2023.
“We had an order book in 2021 which was correct at the end of the year, which has allowed us to work well so far, says Jean-Maurice Mesnage, president of the Lesieur group. And today, we are working for 2023 and I am much more worried about our business in 2023.”
The war in Ukraine and the drought have turned the market upside down with orders slow to arrive and farmers who put off their investments.
When the harvest is less good, inevitably, the results are less good, which can affect purchasing decisions. And we are directly impacted as an equipment seller. These are postponements of investments or cancellations of investments. We are told, listen to the tool or the tractor was good to change, but given the situation, we will wait. That’s a lot of what we hear these days.
The banks are also putting their grain of salt, the rise in interest rates is also problematic for Lesieur. In six months, Jean-Maurice Mesnage estimates that a tractor has increased by 10 to 30% depending on the model. The end of the year is usually conducive to investment. But the president of the Lesieur group already knows that he will not make many orders in the last quarter and expects a drop in turnover. 10 to 15% compared to last year.