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Backed by a lifetime of racing and riding motorcycles, Jeff Marshall Motorcycles has serviced customers across the Canterbury region for almost 30 years. Having spent time working in motorcycle parts and sales in his early days, Jeff headed to Nelson to work in tractor sales and farm equipment. On his return to Ashburton, he started working for Suzuki before buying the business in 1995.

For 12 years, Jeff ran the business from its original site on East Street. However, with the dairy boom driving business expansion, it soon ran out of room, prompting a move to its current site on West Street in 2008.

From 2010 to 2015, the motorcycle industry underwent massive change, while at the same time, dairying started to slow down forcing Jeff to look to diversify away from selling and servicing just motorcycles and accessories. Fortuitously, at the same time, the current Ashburton Stihl Shop came on the market, so Jeff saw an opportunity to take it on.

“They compliment each other really well,” he says. “Every farmer needs a chainsaw, lawn mower, hedge trimmer and more. The customer base for Stihl products is huge; almost everyone in town needs something. It fits in with the motorcycle industry well, as we were used to selling those smaller dollar value items.”

Since taking on the Stihl Shop, Jeff and the team have worked hard to build that side of the business, supplying almost the full range of Stihl outdoor power products and its associated suppliers.

Today, Jeff Marshall Motorcycles and the Stihl Shop jointly employ 13 staff. This includes four technicians and a service manager specialising in various well-known motorcycle brands on the motorcycle side, along with an outdoor power tool technician, sales staff, and office personnel. They offer in-house repairs and on-farm servicing also. Jeff Marshall Motorcycles offers the latest Suzuki and GasGas farm bikes and ATVs, as well as road and trail bikes, for enthusiastic riders. It also has a large parts and accessory area for all your motorbike requirements.

“We are extremely lucky with our staff; many of them have been with us for a long time. There is a lot of aged knowledge about the staff, which certainly helps,” he says.

Jeff inherited being a Ruralco merchant (then ATS) when he took over the business almost 30 years ago and has never looked back. “It already had an existing customer base that we could tap into, and there was already customer demand to supply Ruralco, so it made sense just to carry it on.”

As a new business owner, finding our feet was difficult as dairying expanded across the region. “The convenience of charging it through to Ruralco was a major for us as we endured those growing pains for the first few years. Sending out one account and having that assurance that we would get paid on the 21st of every month was great. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to any new business to become a supplier to help navigate those first few years.”

Jeff does not doubt that the business’s ongoing success was largely due to being a Ruralco merchant. Not just because of the beneficial two-way relationship but because there were few other outlets where you could get your products in front of so many farmers in one hit. “Ruralco is a major part of farming in Mid Canterbury, and it has always been.”

Both Jeff and his wife Kerry devote much time to the Ashburton community. Jeff is a long-serving member of the Ashburton Volunteer Fire Brigade. At the same time, Kerry volunteers for the Ashburton Health Shuttle, which takes people to Christchurch Hospital for appointments and is also a St John Mass Incident Support Team member.