Service Dealer once again represented the UK dealer community at the world's largest outdoor power machinery industry exhibition - Equip in Louisville, Kentucky, during October 2025. Owner of our titles Duncan Murray-Clarke attended with leading UK dealers Pete and Emma McArthur of Strathbogie Forest & Garden, our video expert David Comiskey, and Service Dealer editor, Steve Gibbs.
The team gathered and produced content for this Digital Special Report, which will give a flavour of what UK dealers can expect to experience should they choose to visit the show in subsequent years.
One of the highlights of this year’s trip was a significant development for Service Dealer - an exciting collaboration with the North American Equipment Dealers Association (NAEDA). Duncan and Pete were joined on stage in the main keynote room at the Kentucky International Exhibition Centre by the Association's Tom Healy director of dealer development and US dealer, Jason Huber owner of Central Equipment, for a live panel debate. You can watch the whole discussion in our In-Depth section.
With time limited at the show, the chat between Pete, Jason, Emma and Duncan continued into the evening - captured for this report in the informal setting of a nearby hotel bar. You can watch them get into greater detail on subjects at the heart of the dealer trade on both sides of the Atlantic (over an Old Fashioned or two) also in the In-Depth section.
Here you can also find a long-form conversation (split into bite-sized chunks), between Duncan and Pete and our friends Sara Hey and Bob Clements of dealer training experts in the States, BCI. Their wide-ranging round-table takes in areas of dealer interest such as succession, new technologies, recruitment. A.I and a whole lot more
Rounding off our In-Depths you can catch Kris Kiser, President and CEO of the show's organisers the OPEI, talking about trends seen at the show, the reemergence of gas-power in the U.S, how the political situation is impacting the industry and the future expansion of Equip.
As well as these special features, Pete, Duncan and David roamed the huge inside machinery exhibition and the even larger outdoor machinery demo areas, in search of stories and developments that are of direct interest to our UK dealer readers. You can find these in the Around The Show section.
Pete summed up 2025’s Equip saying, “There is just nothing on this scale in the UK. It's really a remarkable achievement.” We hope you enjoy our Digital Special Report and that it may indeed inspire you to make the trip next year.
Steve Gibbs
Editor, Service Dealer