Major manufacturers are expecting solid revenue growth from rural lifestyle customers this year, according to Rural Lifestyle Dealer’s 2010 Dealer Business Trends and Outlook survey.

RLD asked equipment dealers responding to the survey to identify which tractor brands they offer customers. The information was broken out for AGCO/Massey Ferguson, Case IH, John Deere, Kubota and New Holland.

Click on logo for market segments, dealer equipment forecast for 2010.

Participation by the majors was fairly uniform, with Deere and Kubota dealers each accounting for 22% of the surveys returned, followed by New Holland (21%), AGCO/Massey Ferguson (19%) and Case IH (11%).

Dealers for Kubota, Deere, New Holland and AGCO, which manufac-tures the Massey Ferguson brand, all predicted similar growth in sales revenue from rural lifestylers in 2010, while Case IH’s outlook was a bit higher.

Anywhere from 43-46% of dealers for AGCO, Kubota, Deere and New Holland believe revenue from that market segment will grow by 2% or more. But 55.6% of Case IH dealers predict a 2% or more increase over 2009, including 47% of Case IH dealers calling for a revenue hike of 2-7%.

Kubota (13.4%) and Deere (10.3%) had the most dealers predicting sales revenue growth of 8% or more from rural lifestyle customers in 2010.

Looking at market segmentation among the majors, the dealerships carrying Kubota had the largest share of revenue coming from hobby farmers and large-property owners at 31.6%. Those dealers also had the highest percentage of revenue coming from municipalities/ park districts (9.2%) and turf/ lawn/landscape contractors (12.3%).

Dealers carrying AGCO equipment reported the second-highest amount of revenue coming from hobby farmers and large-property owners at 30.9%, followed by those with New Holland (28%), John Deere (19%) and Case IH (16.6%).

Survey responses also suggest that dealerships with a tractor line will focus on their aftermarket business in 2010. Over 40% of those dealerships predicted aftermarket revenues will grow by 2% or more this year.

Dealers carrying Case IH (20.6%) and Kubota (21.2%) reported aftermarket revenue projections of 8% or more this year. All of the majors’ dealers are predicting growth in the sales of compact and utility tractors in 2010.

When it comes to equipment sales, the majors’ outlook for compact and utility tractors was much more positive than 2009. About 56% of Deere dealers are calling for 2% or more growth in unit sales of compact tractors in 2010, and 59.1% expect the same level of growth for utility tractors.

Kubota and AGCO were nearly as optimistic, with more than 40% of dealers calling for 2% or more growth in unit sales of compact and utility tractors. Predictions from Case IH and New Holland were more conservative.

With the exception of Deere, the outlook for lawn tractors was soft for 2010 among the majors, perhaps reflecting continued weakness in the U.S. housing market.