To coincide with Armstrong Machinery Ltd.’s 60th-anniversary celebrations, we dropped into their Lusk base and got an insight into the history and current well-being of this long-standing family business from director Charles Hutcheson.
Twenty-fourteen is a very special year for Armstrong Machinery Ltd.in Lusk, North County Dublin, which is celebrating 60 years in business. To mark the occasion, the family-run business has launched a special edition, titanium coloured New Holland T7 260 tractor, which has created quite a stir, with many owners upgrading their ’13-reg vehicles to get their hands on this beautiful limited-edition model.
Each special-edition tractor is graced with a rare titanium paint job and boasts additional features, including an upgraded grill imported from the UK and a stainless steel exhaust shield. The working lights bezels mounted on the rear of the cab are also colour-coded, while each 2014-registered tractor comes with a customer nameplate in the cab.
The titanium New Holland – exclusive to Armstrong Machinery – features durable two-pack paint with metallic making it more hard-wearing. Each tractor comes on Michelin tyres.
Providing an extensive range of farm machines to the discerning Irish farmer for six decades now, Armstrong Machinery has been a New Holland dealer since 1976 and, coincidentally, New Holland is also celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014, with a special 50th-anniversary edition of the iconic tractor also available.
Recently, Armstrong Machinery also became the agent and sole importer into Ireland of the award-winning George Moate Tillerstar so there was plenty to see and discuss at the company’s special anniversary Open Days on Friday, March 21st and Saturday, March 22nd!
New to the Irish market, the three-bed folding Tillerstar is a totally new concept for planting vegetable and root crops. A one-pass machine, it eliminates the need for a deep ridger, bed tiller and de-stoner in most soil types. It’s an ideal way to cut down on machinery, manpower, fuel and time!
Main dealer for New Holland, Kverneland, Kuhn, Heva, Berthoud, Knight, Lely, Twose, Sulky, Hi-Spec, NC, Tulip, Husqvarna, George Moate and Fleming, Armstrong Machinery Ltd. was established by Robert Armstrong in 1954. Alex Hutcheson joined as a salesman in 1964; became manager a decade later; and eventually bought the company out in 1985.
Today, the second generation of the Hutcheson family is at the helm, with Alex’s sons Charles and James and daughter Kate calling the shots. The objective of the owners is to continue to set and maintain the highest standards in sales coupled with an unrivalled back-up service, while providing the farming community with a range of machines to meet every possible requirement and budget.
In 2012, the business relocated to impressive new premises at The Five Roads, Lusk, County Dublin (Junction 5, off the M1), serving a countrywide customer base from this state-of-the-art facility. The convenient, easily-accessible location is just one of the many reasons why Armstrong Machinery is destined to maintain its status as the best-known and most-popular farm machinery company in north-east Leinster.
The team at Armstrong Machinery doesn’t just sell farm machines. They also provide unrivalled machinery advice and a genuine, comprehensive back-up service through trained, experienced workshop and parts personnel.
The experienced sales team boasts a wealth of technical knowledge and practical experience of the full range of tractors, balers, harvesters etc. offered, while the workshop is fronted by a fully-experienced team of New Holland-trained mechanics who, between them, have a wide range of specialist expertise.
Stores manager Dessie Begg, for example, has over 40 years’ experience and the parts facility in Lusk can accommodate up to 10,000 line items at any time. Parts can be ordered via email and delivered across the region.
In total, gainful employment is provided to a team of 13.
Armstrong Machinery Ltd. has been synonymous with New Holland for almost four decades. “My father signed the first New Holland franchise in 1976,” Charles Hutcheson reflects. “In 1977, in his first year, he sold 70 new and second-hand combines, and we’ve held the franchise ever since. For New Holland, we cover Dublin, East Meath and Louth.
“Our ethos is based on the service side of things. We believe that if you provide an excellent service, sales will follow on the back of that. Everything we do is based on providing a good service to our customers. We have always provided a very strong back-up service on everything that we sell and we have found that additional sales have followed that. By looking after people properly, you build up good loyalties and relationships.
“Consistently, over the long term, we have provided a good service and value for money. That’s an unbeatable combination. We have invested heavily in our premises and employ the best mechanics in the business, using the latest diagnostic equipment.
“We carry a massive range of stock and farmers or contractors are free to drop into the showroom any time to take a look at what we have. We’d have approximately €2.5m worth of stock here at any given time as well as €1.5m worth of parts. At the moment, we have eleven brand-new tractors and 23 second-hand ones ready to go.”
Charles Hutcheson believes more could be done to promote the benefits of agricultural produce in Ireland: “The market is steady but there is a lot of uncertainty around the potato crop. On the whole, farming is steady, and we have never experienced a Celtic Tiger or a recession. Food and vegetables are essential goods and we are at the start of the chain in terms of food production.
“But the IFA needs to do more to advertise the benefits of eating fresh vegetables and potatoes and to get rid of this myth that the potato is a fattening food. It’s a priceless natural resource at the end of the day and its image needs to be restored.”
Looking to the future, Charles says Armstrong Machinery won’t be resting on its laurels: “We are always on the look-out for something new,” he concludes. “If something new and beneficial comes on the market, then we will pursue it. Our aim is to supply farmers with products that will increase their efficiency and profitability. We attend all the trade shows across Ireland, the UK and Europe and we are always on the look-out for new products and new ideas.”
Sixty years on and it sounds like there’s still plenty of fuel in this particular tank!
Armstrong Machinery Ltd.,
The Five Roads,
Lusk,
County Dublin.
Phone: 01 8431130
Fax: 01 8431015
Email: [email protected]
www.armstrongmachinery.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 2 No 2, June/July 2014
