When
I remember Geoff Schmidt I think of my cousin Doug Barton who came home from
his apprenticeship training in Adelaide waxing lyrical about this bloke he’d
met from Eckerman’s in Tanunda. Doug was excited about his new friend and after
a week I think I knew as much about Geoff as Doug did. Their friendship grew
during their training and I believe they even shared a couple of weekends
together getting up to stuff seventeen year olds get up to.
I
first met Geoff when I spent time with the Ford T&E demo team and spent two
fabulous weeks with Eckerman’s of Tanunda. Geoff took me to demo tractors in
most of the now famous vineyards. Places like Jacob’s Creek, Seppeltsfield and
Angaston, I had one of the most memorable times of my career with Geoff and his
friendship was valued. Geoff is not with us to tell his own story but
thankfully his wife Maureen has graciously taken time to record Geoff’s life as
a tractor man.
The
Geoff Schmidt Glema Services story shouldn’t end here, as Maureen herself has
played a big part in our machinery history and I can only hope that one day she
too will tell more of her story.
Geoff Schmidt's involvement with Ford Tractors & Machinery.
From an early age growing up on a property in
the iconic Barossa Valley, Geoff Schmidt had an appreciation of the needs of
the grape grower and always desired to make life easier. He loved to tinker
with old machinery and innovate where he could,
using very limited resources.
Initially the property was run by horsepower
alone,
quite literally. But soon he convinced his Dad to buy a Fordson Major tractor.
This revolutionised life on the farm and Geoff soon realised the potential of,
and became fascinated by, tractors and all things mechanical.
Looking for greater challenges than were
available on the farm, at the age of sixteen he started as an apprentice diesel
mechanic at the Ford dealership, C.T Eckermann & Co., Tanunda.
Whilst completing his apprenticeship, an
opportunity arose at Eckermanns for Geoff to try his hand at sales, mainly tractors but cars &
machinery also. He enjoyed the personal contact with farmers and grapegrowers.
In 1971 Geoff was offered an opportunity to join
National Mutual Insurance as a sales consultant. Whilst the training
undoubtedly assisted Geoff in his marketing skills, he soon found himself on
the side of the road watching tractors working in the fields when he was
supposed to be selling insurance.
Recognising that he missed his beloved tractors
and especially the Ford badge on the front of them, he decided in April 1973 to
start his own mechanical repair business. Newly married to Maureen and with
their first child on the way, this was in retrospect, quite an ambitious, or
some would say bravely foolish, thing to do.
We started out in a renovated old farm shed at
Nain near Greenock, servicing all types of vehicles including tractors and
trucks. Trading as Glema Services we built a clientele which included some of
Geoff's previous customers and contacts from his time at Eckermanns.
In May 1975 we moved the business to a more
central location at Kroemer's Crossing, Tanunda.
We added a new workshop.
We added a new workshop.
Around that time Eckermanns had sold the Ford
dealership to Rob Ladd Motors. Although at the time it was normal for the cars
and tractor dealerships to operate as one, Rob Ladd Motors were not interested in continuing the tractor
side of the business.
Seeing an opportunity, we met with John
McPherson, the Ford Tractors & Equipment rep. who helped us obtain the
Ford Tractor Dealership in May 1977
Trading as Glema Services Pty Ltd., we were
initially given a target of twelve new tractor sales for the first twelve
months. We managed thirteen! During 1980
a new showroom complemented the dealership.
That was the beginning of a great and long
relationship with “Ford Tractors & Equipment”.
Many changes in the business occurred over the
years. Mechanical harvesters replaced grape pickers and vineyard tractors
needed to adapt also from their more traditional roles. Open air 2-wheel drive
tractors with vine-dodgers gave way to 4-WD, air conditioned cabs with
low-speed creeper gearboxes and spray equipment. Geoff was an innovator in
matching combinations of tractor gearboxes, tyres sizes and P.T.O ratios to
achieve optimum grape harvester efficiency.
The workshop also had to evolve to accommodate
the increasingly sophisticated equipment.
We went through some very challenging times:
Company changes.
Ford Tractors & Equip became Ford New Holland
and then New Holland when Fiat bought the company.
Droughts came and went, vine-pulls and boom
times for vignerons all were reflected in our business too. We were fortunately
somewhat insulated from the vagaries of climate and economic fluctuations as
our franchise area incorporated both vineyards and cereal cropping.
We were very fortunate to win some wonderful memorable holidays as incentives offered by the Ford Tractor Company. It was very exciting to be able to achieve these.
Due to Geoff’s ill health, regretfully we had to
sell the business in 1998 to Ivan Limb who is still now trading as B.M.S
(Barossa Machinery Services) in Tanunda, S.A.
In his retirement Geoff’s love of tractors
continued, collecting 23 of various Ford models,
to play with.
Sadly, Geoff died in a car accident in August,
2003.
These are very interesting stories - it would be great to see pics as well.
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed your comment Merlene, I will try to get a few photos of people and place for the next few stories
ReplyDelete