Providing a wide range of top-quality services from their Ballydesmond base on the Cork/Kerry border, Kelly Bros have earned a reputation for excellence over the past three decades and more. We caught up with Sean Kelly to take a closer look at this operation, which is as impressive as it is varied.
There’s no airs and graces with Kelly Bros; no frills, no bells and whistles. They just keep their heads down and get on with things – an honest day’s work for a fair price. That’s what has worked for them and their customers down through the years.
A wide range of services is provided in a no-nonsense fashion, from agri contracting to quarrying, forestry to sports grounds and each job is treated as an absolute priority, with the best machinery operated by a team of experienced and competent operatives. Customer service is at the very heart of everything Kelly Bros do. It’s not rocket science … but it works!
“To stand over the work you do, you have to have the best equipment and you have to keep investing in it,” says Sean Kelly, who started out on a small scale some 32 years ago, mostly doing silage and a bit of land drainage. From there, the business was expanded to incorporate forestry and quarrying / stone as well as the sports pitches section, which is active nationwide.
Four Kelly brothers oversee the operation today, each charged with running one particular aspect of the overall business: Sean looks after the sports grounds; Eamonn is over the agri contracting; Tadgh is in charge of the cement; and Neil handles site work and machinery. The next generation of the family is also on board: Sean’s son Denis is an engineer, as is Tadgh’s son Danny, while Eamonn’s sons Jason and Shane are employed as quantity surveyor and harvester operatives respectively.
For the agri contracting, the Kellys, who specialise in silage, slurry, ploughing and reseeding, have a large fleet of tractors at their disposal – “too many of them!” Sean quips. Twenty-four in total, including John Deeres, Fendts, Fords etc. “We use whatever suits a particular job at any given time,” says Sean. “The days of driving tractors into the ground are long over. You have to mind the gear now and, to be fair, we have it all in good nick.” In keeping with the modesty of Kelly Bros, this is a bit of an understatement: in fact, they operate their own modern workshop, with their own mechanics and welders on site. “It’s handy when you can repair and service them yourself and it helps keep the overheads down,” Sean adds.
Complementing the tractors is an array of stunning machinery, including two John Deere harvesters, a Big M and three ten-foot mowers, a Claas rake, 14 diggers, five lorries and a number of dump trucks.
Kelly Bros sports grounds are constructed nationwide, providing superb, professional finishes using highly specialised equipment and years of expertise. They use their own sand to construct certified football pitches and golf course etc. and do a large number of synthetic pitches. The service comprises a full one-stop shop from start to finish, including everything from digging to sowing to drainage etc.
Forestry is another area that Kelly Bros specialise in, being located in something of a forestry heartland along the Cork / Kerry border. “There have been a lot of forests planted here in the last 30 years and we are doing a fair bit of private work for farmers,” says Sean. Again, a comprehensive and complete service is provided.
“We put in the roads, which are built to the highest spec, and we get the felling licence and tend to the wood. We take out whatever needs to be taken out in order to get the crop to maturity. You’d do three thinnings in total and then the final crop would be ready after 35-38 years. So it’s not a quick earner; it’s more of a pension scheme.
“We’re in the process of doing thinnings now and we are very lucky to have Munster Joinery here on our doorstep as they take most of the pulp off us while a local sawmill takes the pallet wood.”
Quarrying is another very important part of the overall business. The Kellys operate their own quarry and sand pit, producing natural building stone and other materials for use in the construction of houses and roadways etc. “We use those materials for our own forest roadways as well as for farmyards and silo pits. We supply to contractors in our area and that is a big part of the overall operation. We also do our own readymix concrete and do a good bit of site clearance.”
All in all, Kelly Bros currently generate direct employment for a full-time crew of 45 – no mean feat and a huge boost to the local economy. “In rural Ireland, it’s a lot alright,” former Kerry footballer Sean concedes. “We are growing hand in hand with Munster Joinery. During the boom times, when we were working for a number of developers in Mallow, we actually had up to 75 people on our books but we had to scale back.”
Kelly Bros certainly couldn’t be accused of having all their eggs in one basket. Regarding the varied nature of the operation, Sean points out that diversification was the only way to move the business forward: “We wouldn’t survive if we were only at one thing. We had to diversify in order to survive. You have to have all the best gear to provide all the various services and you have to get the most out of each machine. You’re out in the elements all the time, depending on the weather for your livelihood and also depending on how well the farmers and other customers are getting on.
“If they are going good, we are going good, but rural Ireland is being let down badly in the last three years and things like designated land, with farmers being told their land is worthless, are very unfair.
“It’s also becoming more and more difficult to run a legitimate business. I agree with safety and we have an excellent safety record here but there are far too many rules and regulations governing this industry. There are people being robbed while they lie on trolleys in hospitals yet lads are being pulled over at 4am in the morning to have their vehicles checked. We are gone way over the top and we need to get back to basics.
“We’ve also gone down the worrying road of pricing everybody in Europe instead of sticking with local contractors. Local contractors provide local employment and keep money in the economy as well as having a good knowledge of the local community and providing an invaluable back-up service to customers in rural Ireland. There’s a lot to be said for keeping it local and giving jobs to the people who are best qualified to do it.”
Kelly Bros,
Knocknaboul,
Ballydesmond,
County Cork.
Tel: 064 7751164
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 8, September 2015
