Daedong hosts the 2023 KIOTI Dealer Meeting in North America
Daedong hosts the 2023 KIOTI Dealer Meeting in North America
-. Meeting to strengthen Daedong’s partnership and loyalty with dealers, share its vision... Event hosted in Raleigh, North America from November 12 to 14
-. A total of 750 guests, including dealers, attended the event... Daedong unveiled a new product roadmap, offered product/parts/finance/service training, and gave out dealer awards
-. Meeting also focused on demonstrating products for dealers... Dealers were given a chance to test drive more than 40 tractors, transport vehicles, etc. across an 82-acre test site
- Despite an 11% decline in North America’s sub-100 horsepower tractor market in the third quarter, Daedong retail sales improved by 6%.
Daedong Group's future agtech platform company Daedong (Co-CEOs Kim Jun-sik and Won Yu-hyun) announced on November 20 that it hosted the “2023 North American KIOTI Dealer Meeting,” inviting more than 520 KIOTI dealers in North America to the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, from November 12 to 14 (local time).
Daedong’s subsidiaries in North America have been holding a North American dealer meeting every year since 2004 to create cooperative relationships with dealers and maximize brand loyalty while sharing Daedong's short-, mid-, and long-term visions and plans with various stakeholders in the North American market. This year, a total of 750 guests, including North American KIOTI dealers, Daedong executives and employees, and North American partners, attended the event. On the first day, November 12, Daedong hosted a welcome dinner for dealers, and on the second day, November 13, the company shared its overall performance in 2023, announced its agricultural machinery market outlook and product roadmap, offered various sales training as well as product/parts/finance/service training sessions. On November 14, the last day of the meeting, dealers were given a chance to test drive KIOTI products and to go on an office tour of Daedong. The event finished with an award ceremony for Daedong’s most outstanding dealers in North America that year.
In order to develop KIOTI into a specialized brand for Ground Care Equipment (GCE)[1] in North America, Daedong has been expanding its product lineup to include zero-turn mowers and small construction equipment like “skid loaders.” The company also focused on offering test drives at the meeting to bolster its market presence in mid- to large-sized tractors with 60 horsepower or more. For the test drives, Daedong borrowed an 82-acre farm near the convention center and gave dealers a chance to get their hands on more than 40 products, including tractors, skid steer steerers, zero-turn mowers, and multi-purpose transport vehicles, for sale in North America within the 20 to 120 horsepower range. Daedong also prepared a wide variety of implements, including a “bale spear” for transporting hay for North America, “cutter” for weeding, and “grapple” for transporting lumber, for its tractors so that dealers could get the full experience and performance of KIOTI tractors and implements.
Kim Dong-gyun, CEO of Daedong-USA, said, “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the executives, employees, and dealers of our North American subsidiaries who helped our brand grow its market share in North America and become a tier-1 brand. This is all down to your persistence and passion to make things work despite the difficult market conditions we experienced this year.” He continued, “If our company and dealers cooperate as they do now, I am confident KIOTI can become a global leader in the tractor market beyond North America.”
Meanwhile, Daedong started local sales of its global export brand KIOTI in the United States in 1985. In 1993, it established Daedong-USA, a North American subsidiary, and now has more than 520 dealers. Its growing presence in the US has helped KIOTI become a force in the sub-100 horsepower tractor market. By strategically targeting the sub-60 horsepower tractor market, which has grown significantly in conjunction with the rise in “hobby farms” during the recent pandemic, KIOTI currently ranks third in the sub-100 horsepower tractor market. In particular, it ranks second in the market for sub-30 horsepower tractors. Due to the pandemic and economic recession, however, the cumulative market for sub-100 horsepower tractors shrank to 187,000 units in the third quarter of this year, down 11% from the previous year. Fortunately, on a retail basis, Daedong sold 16,000 units, a 6% increase over the previous year, increasing its market share to 8.5%, and is seen as a “tier 1 brand.”
[1]Ground Care Equipment (GCE) is used for working agricultural facilities, farmland, and home gardens for weeding, snow plowing, moving hay, removing trees, etc. GCE include equipment, such as small tractors, lawn mowers, multi-purpose transport vehicles, and tractor implements, such as grapples and backhoes.