From its base in Slane, County Meath, R&M Buckets Ltd. manufactures a full range of buckets, attachments and accessories for the agricultural sector. We caught up with Paul Rafferty – son of founder / proprietor Michael – to get an insight into the products and services provided by this exceptional family business.
R&M Buckets Ltd. was established in 2001 by Michael Rafferty, who had already spent 30 years in the engineering sector. Initially starting out with just three employees, the company has expanded organically over the years and now boasts twelve employees at its well-appointed, purpose-built manufacturing facility at Grangegeeth, Slane, County Meath.
During the boom years, when construction was at its peak, excavator buckets and attachments were the main products offered but, in more recent years, the company has moved more and more into the agricultural side of manufacturing, specialising in drainage products like mole ploughs, subsoilers, gravel-tunnel ploughs and more recently stoning karts.
A selection of front loader attachments is also manufactured, from hydraulic quick-coupler units to HiTip buckets and silage forks, available for all machines. Furthermore, R&M will happily undertake any metal fabrication, including decorative gates, security gates and railings as well as any repair work to buckets and attachments. From changing fittings and teeth to replacing edges and bushings, all repairs are carried out to the highest possible standards by experienced and qualified personnel in R&M Buckets’ state-of-the-art workshop.
Products manufactured in the excavating side of things include digging and riddle buckets, ditching and grading buckets, V-shaped buckets, landscaping rakes and buckets, grabs and a range of attachments (adaptor plates, tipping boxes, angle tilts, snow ploughs, jib extensions, dipper arm extensions, rock hammer tops and rock pokes).
R&M Buckets Ltd. is very much a one-stop shop for all bucket, attachment and accessory needs, offering a full range of services in-house including design, cut , manufacture and finish as well as repairs.
Reflecting on the genesis of the family business, Paul Rafferty notes: “Michael spent 30 years in the engineering sector before spotting an opening to set up his own business. He started on a small scale with just himself, his brother Patrick and myself, initially making small brackets and attachments for Tara Mines when they were going through a phase of refurbishment.
“He had built up a lot of contacts in the industry with the likes of Hitachi, Volvo (Pat O’Donnell), Phil McCormack Plant, Caterpillar, E.C.I. and many others. They were very interested in what we were doing and we went from making excavator buckets for smaller machines to gradually working on the bigger stuff as well and expanding our product range.
“We now manufacture a full range of buckets and attachments, approximately 70% of which is sold here in Ireland, while the rest goes into the UK market as well as Europe and sometimes further afield. We have sold container-loads of buckets and attachments to Australia and Colombia, for example, as well as more regular loads Folding Forks and other front loading attachments to Sweden and The Netherlands
“Our agricultural best sellers include mole ploughs, single-leg or multi-leg subsoilers, gravel-tunnel ploughs and stoning karts. We are also currently working on developing an aerator, which we hope to bring to market next year.
“We also do shear grabs, bale shears and general bale grabs, silage forks, folding silage forks, pallet forks and buckets of all kinds.
“Hydraulic quick couplers and adaptor plates are also becoming more popular with farmers who want to use one product on a few different machines.”
R&M Buckets sell directly to end users throughout the 32 counties (including contractors and farmers) and also supply buckets and attachments to agricultural machinery dealers. “We are constantly trying to improve and update our products as much as possible and also regularly look at adding new products to the range, such as the aerator, which local farmers have been testing out for us during 2014.”
While a couple of standard buckets are usually kept in the yard as well as a mole plough and a stoning kart, attachments are generally manufactured to order. “A lot of the work we do is bespoke. It is very hard to standardise anything we do,” Paul Rafferty notes.
How long does it take to manufacture a bucket or attachment? “In general, it could take anything between one week and four weeks, depending on the bucket and the hydraulics involved in it. On average – although every job is different – I’d say there’s a two-week lead time.”
How difficult is it to get the balance right between providing a quality product and value for money? “We always try to give the best price possible but our main concern is delivering a high-quality bucket. Naturally, we will always try to keep the costs down as much as we possibly can – and we do a good job with this – but we will never compromise on quality. We prefer to invest in quality and you have to charge for that. Most people are prepared to pay for quality. We could bring in cheaper, poorer-quality buckets from abroad and cut costs that way, but we don’t want to be associated with cheap materials that compromise on quality. We offer a quality Irish product and a quality back-up service and customers know exactly where they stand.
“We have really only started advertising over the past two or three years but have previously gone from strength to strength through word of mouth. We have found that by keeping existing customers happy, you pick up more and more new ones along the way.”
Looking to the future, Paul feels that by introducing further efficiencies to the business, R&M Buckets Ltd. can continue to thrive: “We hope to grow our export market a bit more and we are in the process of investing in new cutting and forming equipment, which will speed up our manufacturing process and enable us to get more products out into the market,” he concludes.
R&M Buckets Ltd.
GrangeGeeth,
Slane,
County Meath.
Phone: 041 9820800
Fax: 041 9820200
Mobile: 086 2633002 / 086 8509313
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 1, January/February 2015
