In the five years since its inception, Tullyallen Agri Services has earned an excellent reputation across counties Louth, Meath Dublin and beyond selling, repairing and servicing agricultural machinery.
We dropped into the family business’ well-appointed base in Tullyallen village on the outskirts of Drogheda and met Gordon Healy to find out more about the exceptional machinery business, as well as the outstanding agri contracting service provided.
When it comes to sourcing, supplying, servicing and repairing agricultural machinery, Tullyallen Agri Services in County Louth provides a comprehensive and high-quality service that is second to none. The Healy family boasts decades of experience working with agri machinery and the resulting expertise – coupled with genuine enthusiasm and meticulous attention to detail – ensures that clients are provided with products and back-up service levels that cannot be beaten.
Tullyallen Agri Services supplies new vacuum tanks, slurry pumps, toppers, aerators, cattle and silage trailers, tub feeders, grazers, bale handling equipment (including wrappers) and much more besides. They also stock an impressive selection of second-hand machinery.
A large range of slurry and irrigation equipment is carried in stock at all times to suit most vac tanks and spreaders, alongside an array of accessories such as oils, lubricants, batteries, PTOs, lights and wearable parts for ploughs, harrows and mowers. The sales side of the business is backed up by a modern, efficient and affordable service and repairs department, guaranteeing that customers’ gear is always firing on all cylinders.
Fronted by brothers Gordon and Stephen Healy alongside their father Gerard, Tullyallen Agri Services is very much a family-run business, thereby offering a personal touch and a friendly, thorough, fully-transparent service.
Reflecting on the genesis of the superb family operation, the first-mentioned notes: “We set up the business in 2010, but my father has been involved in contracting since the late ‘60s / early ‘70s. We provide a comprehensive range of services, selling new and reconditioned machinery and also servicing and repairing machinery in the workshop. We have a good selection of second-hand manure spreaders, slurry tanks, hoppers etc. and we also repair hydraulic hoses and PTOs.”
A full range of Belmac machinery is stocked, including grazers, toppers, spreaders, slurry tanks, agitators, aerators etc. as well as Malone mowers and wagons; Fleming aerators, bale handlers, trailers, fertiliser spreaders, grabs, harrows, toppers, tankers, pumps etc.; Quickie loaders; and Zero Grazers. Parts are also available for all of these products.
“We brought in Louis Kelly to look after the sales end of it,” Gordon continues. “Louis comes from an engineering background and has been in this line of work for a long time. He’s built up a lot of contacts around the country over the past 25 years and people have great faith in him, so we’re delighted to have him here as part of the Tullyallen Agri Services team.”
Gordon and Stephen carry out the servicing of machinery in the workshop, where full shot-blasting and re-spraying services are offered as well as professional repairs. While it’s hard to beat the efficiency and reliability of a brand-new machine, the pre-owned and reconditioned machinery available at Tullyallen Agri Services is also extremely dependable:
“A lot of our customers would trade in old tanks and stuff and we’d completely recondition them, including shot-blasting and spraying, and then sell them on at a very good price. These are cheap and cheerful and are exactly what some people are looking for. When they leave our workshop, they are 100% and we have never yet had any complaints about any of them. They are rigorously reconditioned and thoroughly texted and checked before they leave the workshop.”
As for the catchment area covered, Tullyallen Agri Services has attracted customers from all over Leinster mainly but also from all four corners of the island, while the contacting service is typically provided to farmers within a 30-mile radius incorporating counties Louth and Meath as well as a bit of north county Dublin.
True to form, the contracting service provided by the Healys is also a comprehensive one, including silage cutting, sowing and cutting whole crop, slurry spreading, round bales and square bales, hedge cutting, topping and aerating as well as tilling, re-seeding and ploughing. “We also have a log splitter, which we use to cut timber, and provide digger hire with a 14-tonne track machine,” says Gordon.
In their own tractor fleet, they operate a Claas Jaguar 860; three Massey Fergusons (two 7618s and one 7626), a John Deere 6930, as well as a JCB loading shovel (418s), a JCB teleporter (73170) and a Pottinger jumbo forage wagon. Gainful employment is provided to a core crew of five all year around, with this number invaribly doubling during silage season.
While the internet – specifically DoneDeal and Facebook – represents a decent promotional tool, it’s hard to beat positive references and good old-fashioned word of mouth. “We get a lot of business that way,” Gordon confirms. “People hear from a neighbour or a friend who bought from us and then they come and do business with us as well.
“You try to do your best to keep customers happy. We give a good back-up service and the place never closes. You’re on call all the time and you never see a lad stuck. Once you look after your customers, they tend to stick with you.
“You make sure you have everything they need. We have a sell-stocked shop here with bearings, chains, oil, PTOs, lights, batteries etc. as well as a full range of parts for Zero Grazers – blades, gearboxes, discs – to keep them ticking over.”
Looking to the future, Gordon is confident that Tullyallen Agri Services can continue to thrive: “It seems to be going alright so we’ll keep things more or less as they are and keep our eyes open for any new opportunities,” he concludes. “We’re also farming 150 acres ourselves and we did a good bit of wholecrop this year, which was used for fattening our beef cattle. We keep around 100 beef sucklers and are considering going back into dairy.
“The bottom line is that this is a close-knit family business. My dad is still the boss and then myself and Stephen are involved as well as some close friends. They are all good workers who give it their all and, without them, it would be impossible to keep the show on the road. We also get good support from our clients and customers, without whose continued support we’d be lost.”
Tullyallen Agri Services,
Golf Course Road,
Tullyallen,
Drogheda,
County Louth.
Tel: 041 9839651
Mobile: 086 3873761
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 10, November 2015
