Despite being just eight years in existence, RT Hedge & Tree Cutting Ltd has carved a niche for itself in its line of work. The specialist Kerry company is the brainchild of Padraig Teahan and his father-in-law Johnny Reidy.
When the building sector hit the rocks back in 2008, Padraig Teahan found himself at a crossroads in his professional career.
Up until that point, working in construction was all he knew and uncertainty about what the future held in store began to creep in. Determined to diversify, he subsequently joined forces with his father-in-law, Johnny Reidy, to set up a hedge and tree cutting business.
It’s fair to say that he hasn’t looked back since because Castleisland-based RT Hedge & Tree Cutting Ltd has earned a reputation as a company that can be trusted to carry out its work to the highest standards. Their ever expanding client list is testimony to this.
“I was working in the building industry up until 2008,” Padraig recalled in conversation with Irish
Tractor & Agri magazine. “My father-in-law had two tractors working at cutting and I kind of fell in to helping him on Saturdays when the building was still going strong.
“Then when it got quiet on the building front, I got more and more involved in the hedge cutting and we decided to set up a limited company from there. I went after the likes of the Councils, Coillte and Eircom and we’ve grown the business from there.
“Johnny is a muscian and has his own band. Hedge cutting was a hobby on the side for him but he’s a bit of a perfectionist and likes things done right. We just got going together and, thankfully, things have worked out well for us so far. Being awarded the maintenance contract with Coillte in 2012 was definitely a real boost to the business. It’s a huge area covering from Kerry up to Galway and we’ve kept it for the past 5 years.”
Padraig and Johnny have three full-time employees on the books and also avail of the services of three to four temporary people to help out as the workload demands. In addition, Padraig’s wife Diane helps out with the paperwork.
From an operational point of view, they run a modern and well-maintained fleet of seven tractors (five John Deere, one Same and one Lamborghini), two saw heads and five ARBOCUT hedge cutters.
The quality of their work and a professional service are the strong foundations on which the family-run business is built and they boast a substantial client base consisting of the likes of Kerry County Council, Clare County Council, Limerick County Council and Cork County Council as well as Coillte, BAM and the KN Group.
“We’ve been working for Kerry County Council since the company started and Cork County Council for the last three to four years,” Padraig revealed. “Limerick County Council came on board this year and we had two tractors in Kilmallock together with a separate crew in Mallow for Cork County Council for most of July.”
Why are RT Hedge & Tree Cutting’s services very much in demand by local authorities and others?
“It’s all down to the service. I have found that you have to have the ability to offer a quick response time which we can provide because of the size of our fleet. We are also very conscious of health and safety and we run a tight ship on traffic management on all our jobs.”
Padraig and Johnny’s modus operandi is also one of their key selling points and they guarantee that all jobs will be completed swiftly and safely.
“We can put four machines in a convoy, with one quad at the front doing stop/go and one at the back. We are able to cut continuously in one direction and are always moving forward. There’s very little disruption to traffic as a result and this means we can get the cutting done in a short space of time which is something that the local authorities appreciate.
“Also, over the last seven to eight months we’ve been using a front mounted hedge cutter which has proven to be vital for grass verges on narrow roads.”
Always putting safety and peace of mind first, business has been brisk of late for RT Hedge and Tree Cutting and Padraig and Johnny are looking to progress the company further and expand its services in the years ahead.
“Business is going very well with the extra Councils coming on board and we’re going to do a big push on grass verge cutting this year. We’ve also started providing traffic management services to other contractors independent of the hedge cutting. This is definitely an area in which we feel there is room for expansion. We are also offering a spraying service to the local authorities to deal with the knotweed problem to which they have shown a lot of interest.
“Recently we secured the agency from AR Engineering for their ARBOCUT 2000 hedge cutters, mulching heads for track machines and saw heads covering Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Clare areas, which is an exciting partnership and a new direction for the business.”
For further information contact Padraig at the number below. He is happy to provide advice on their services that would best suit your needs.
RT Hedge & Tree Cutting
Mullin
Cordal
Castleisland
Co Kerry
(087) 2992218 or email [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 7, October/November 2017
