2018 marks 30 years in business for Bennett Agri Contractors and the Co Leitrim-based company is as busy as ever according to its owner William Bennett, who told Irish Tractor & Agri all about its range of services and excellent New Holland fleet.
These are busy times at Bennett Agri Contractors and its owner and founder William Bennett wouldn’t have it any other way, having built his business from the ground up.
Based just outside of Carrigallen in Co Leitrim, the company has earned itself a glowing reputation amongst its clients off the back of its continued excellent work over the past three decades.
Despite the hectic summer schedule, William was able to take some time recently to give Irish Tractor & Agri the lowdown on his thriving business.
“We’re based in Killygar, Carrigallen, Co Leitrim and we’re established now since 1988. We have six lads working here and my son Ryan is also involved in the business,” William outlined.
“We carry out a lot of work in silage and baling. I’d say we do between 1,500 to 2,000 acres of silage all year round and then around 10 to 12,000 round bales a year. We’re at slurry as well – we do about 120 slotted tanks of slurry.
“We do hedges as well and winter work with diggers. The best way to say it would be that there’s no idle time here.”
Indeed William has never been one to spend unproductive time, having started up his own venture very soon after finishing school.
Thankfully, he hasn’t had to look back either as he has managed to grow a long and loyal list of clientele which are dispersed all throughout the Leitrim, Cavan and Roscommon region.
Bennett’s machinery even travels as far as Castlepollard in Co Westmeath twice a year for one client in particular.
Reflecting on how he got off the ground, William outlined:
“I just started up myself from I left school. The first thing I bought was a round baler and I just grew the business from there basically.”
As the years rolled by, repeat business from clients became a common theme and William built up his machinery fleet, having originally started out with John Deere tractors.
After some consideration, he switched his tractors over to the New Holland brand and has strayed away from them since.
“All the tractors that we have here are New Hollands,” William stated.
“Altogether we have eight New Hollands – I did have all John Deere at one stage but changed and have found New Holland cheaper to buy and cheaper to run, plus I’ve a mechanic right here beside me that looks after them.”
And those New Hollands can been seen travelling the roads and rounding the fields all throughout the region where Bennett Agri Contractors operate.
“We cover a big area,” William put it plainly. “We’d cover from Cavan town to Roosky in Roscommon, as far as Ballyconnell, and Arva and then we do a week’s work each up in Castlepollard – one in the summer and one in the winter.”
And business right now is good. So much so that there are just about enough machines at Bennett Agri to keep up with the high demand from clients right now.
“We’re very, very busy here at the moment. I haven’t enough tractors here right now to bring in more lads though so we’ll just jeep tipping away with what we have,” William stated.
So what’s the secret to it all? How does one immerse himself in a business from the time he finished his education to growing it and making it into the success story that it is today?
For William, he feels it comes down to two qualities his company has in particular.
“I do try to give as good a service as I can and I’ve had good relationships with clients, going back as far as 1988,” he said.
The company’s slurry work down through the years has been a huge factor in its success as well.
At the moment, Bennett Agri Contractors are operating with four tankers in their fleet and they’re as busy as they’ve ever been on that end.
“We’ve a complete new system now with new piping. We just haven’t gotten a chance to use it yet,” said the business founder
“As I said, we do a lot of slurry work here with four tankers and pipe system. Then we have five silage trailers, a John Deere harvester, a tedder, a JCB 416 Loader, two sideslingers, two balers, one wrapper, a hedge-cutter, a digger and four mowers.”
As for his own farm, William currently owns 150 acres of land and is renting another 150 on top of that, with 200 young cattle, 70 suckler cows and 30 sheep.
It all makes for busy times indeed but, having grown from the base right up over the past 30 years those who know William Bennett know that he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Bennett Agri Contractors
Killygar,
Carrigallen,
Co Leitrim
Mob: 086 382 0137
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 6, September/October 2018
