With more than 25 years under its belt, William Foster Tractors Ltd in Co Wicklow continues to lead the way when it comes to the supply of New Holland products. Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with the man himself to learn more about the company.
These are busy times for William Foster Tractors Ltd and the man himself simply wouldn’t have it any other way.
Based in Monaglough in Arklow, Co Wicklow, the business has grown from strength to strength over the past 25 years (and more) to the point where it is now one of the main New Holland agencies in the country.
As William himself puts it, he has been “involved with tractors all his life” but once he decided to go out on his own back in 1991 he would never look back.
The company currently operates with four staff members and sells both new and used tractors, spare parts and other New Holland machinery such as mini-diggers / skid steers and ground care products.
Prior to starting up by himself, William had worked for a Ford Dealership where he gained the experience necessary to start up his own business venture and is glad to report that they’re experiencing busy times at present.
“We’ve four staff right now, covering sales, parts, workshop and repairs, and while we were hurt by the recession things have come back and we’re busy again,” he explained.
“We are always busy here with the spare parts and we’d have customers coming from all over, mostly from Dublin, Carlow, Wexford and, of course, Wicklow.”
Indeed they have such an extensive stock of parts that they even have some overseas customers purchasing spare parts from them, sending parts to customers as far afield from Austria right through to Kenya
William Foster Tractors Ltd started from humble beginnings and since setting up shop in Monaglough, it has provided its loyal clientele with a full range of New Holland agriculture and ground care & construction products.
With a full range of genuine spare parts for all Ford, Fiat and New Holland tractors, as well as a fully equipped workshop with all the latest diagnostic and specialist tools with factory trained technicians, and you begin to understand why the company has grown such a glowing reputation amongst its customers. They also have a dedicated service vans ready to carry out any repairs on site.
The origins of the business date back to a time when William was immersed in Ford dealership and after its closure he took the bold decision to set-up his own venture.
That was 26 years ago and after the demise of Abbey Service Garage in Wicklow, where William, or “Willie”, worked as a store man for over 25 years supplying parts for all types of Ford vehicles car, truck, tractor, he was approached by Ford New Holland to see if he would be interested in taking the franchise for Ford New Holland tractors.
He started from a small shed at the back of his house to store parts. That’s where it all started from and very soon afterwards he sold his first tractor – a two-wheel drive Ford 5030 to a local farmer, which the customer still owns uses on a daily basis.
Things have progressed massively since that time. Today, William has a purpose built garage with stores and workshop facilities – known as William Foster Tractors Ltd.
It is one of the leading stores/spare part depots in the country at the present time, with a massive selection of genuine spare parts for old and new tractors at the keenest prices.
New Holland trained technicians are also on board, with fully equipped workshop facilities at their disposal and all the latest diagnostic and software programming tools, dynometer testing and servicing expertise. A comprehensive range of 20–200+ horse power new and pre-owned tractors are also in the store.
Now with over 50 years’ experience in the agri tractor industry, William has the invaluable knowledge and expertise that money just can’t buy.
However, even with the expansion of the business and the hectic pace of today’s modern farming some things still remain the same for William and all the staff at William Foster Ltd.
They are on a first name basis with many of their customers and are always willing to go that little bit further to make sure that the customer always gets the best deal.
The company’s motto read ‘Putting Farmers First’ and all at William Foster Tractors Ltd endeavour to do that day in and day out.
“We feel we are on the ball when it comes to our service,” William stated.
“We get a lot of repeat business here and a large part of it is down to our customers being happy with the products we have and the back-up service that we offer.”
They’ll soon be celebrating 30 years in business at William Fosters Tractors Ltd, which is quite a feat in the modern farm machinery business.
The success of the business can be largely put down to their absolute dedication to their large customer base and their desire to provide the very best service and best value for money to all their customers be it supplying an oil filter for a Ford 5000 or servicing a TM140 right through to supplying a new top of the range T7.230 tractor.
Keith Foster (William’s son) responsible for sales had the following to say about the business: “It’s a very exciting time to be involved with farm machinery sector at the moment with the amount of new technologies that are available and the sheer immense size of some of the equipment we’re selling.
“Just recently we have sold a lot of T7 long wheel base units in around the 200 horse power mark. This would have been unimaginable in this part of the country just 10 years ago but now the trend seems to be for bigger and bigger machines to cover more ground in less time. We have just recently supplied some auto guidance systems that actually steer the tractor for the operator again this is something that would have been considered science fiction just a couple of years ago.”
When we asked Keith about the secrets of the success of the family business he had the following to say: “Well, at this stage people have come to associate us with blue tractors and having the privilege of being a New Holland agent for the last 25 plus years certainly has helped.
“I couldn’t see us having made such a success of the business if we hadn’t been New Holland dealers. And being New Holland dealers has provided us with many exciting opportunities to supply everything from small specialised ground care equipment right through to the modern big tillage tractors and everything in between and just recently the construction equipment.
“So after 25 years of business for William Foster Ltd, it’s safe to say that their motto of ‘putting farmers first’ has served them well and bearing that in mind I think the next 25 years aren’t looking too bad either. The best service comes out of the blue!”
William Foster Tractors Ltd
Monaglough,
Arklow,
Co Wicklow
Tel: 0402 35766
E-mail: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 1, February 2018
