Ways Kelly Tractor Is Plowing Forward During the Pandemic
September 25, 2020 As Florida and the nation adapts to the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida Grower magazine is recognizing the important role businesses play in serving specialty crop producers in the state. This month, we are featuring Garry Anderson, Ag Division Manager for Kelly Tractor.
How far back does Kelly Tractor’s history date back?
ANDERSON: Kelly Tractor Co. is a fourth-generation, family-owned business. Our company was founded more than 87 years ago by E.E. “Pop” Kelly, who in 1933, acquired Clewiston Motor Co., which was enfranchised that year as the Caterpillar dealer serving the greater South Florida region.
Since our founding, we have always been dedicated to serving the farming community of citrus and sugarcane growers in Florida by offering them the best solutions. Our roots are very much a part of our agriculture business division. So, in hindsight, our agricultural division is perhaps the oldest in the company since the opening of our first branch location dates back to our founding in 1933 in Clewiston.
Today, we have dedicated branches to serve our customers’ agricultural equipment needs in Miami, West Palm, Davie, Clewiston, Fort Myers, and Orlando.
How have business operations at Kelly Tractor been impacted by the coronavirus?
ANDERSON: When the coronavirus pandemic began to unfold here in Florida this spring, needless to say, it caused many businesses to change their day-to-day operations to a significant degree in response to what we were facing.
Garry Anderson
At Kelly Tractor Co., we began acting early on by listening to health experts and local authorities, as well as following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In March, we began enacting very strong CDC-guided company-wide policies of social distancing and sanitization of our facilities. Following the social distancing guideline was challenging at first because it required us to have many of our employees work remotely, while still maintaining productivity. We also had to limit our weekly hours of operations when the pandemic started to hit. In order to mitigate this, we ensured our customers had the availability to call our service teams, even after-hours. As coronavirus cases began to surge in April, the CDC issued the face mask wearing recommendation for businesses to follow. We began requiring the use of face masks at every company branch in each respective county they were mandated by authorities. All visiting customers were encouraged to wear a face mask upon entering any of our facilities from the beginning.
How did you alter service to you customers in response to the coronavirus?
ANDERSON: In April, we also rolled out a parts curbside pickup service at every branch as a way of offering our customers a safer yet convenient option of meeting their parts needs. Additionally, we had safety barriers installed in every one of our parts counters, throughout our facilities to safeguard interactions between our salespersons and customers. It’s been a challenging process, overall, but one that has allowed us to learn how to perform business functions differently to, most importantly, serve our customers’ needs, while protecting their health and well-being.
The agricultural and construction markets continue to work around current conditions. We find many office staff working remotely with minimal staff at the traditional office. Electronic or digital paperwork has become more commonly used. Our efforts for marketing and communicating has also changed in a similar manner.