Based in Castletown, Co Offaly, OMB Farm Buildings Ltd specialises in all types of farm builds for its customers in the Midlands region. Irish Tractor Agri & Plant touched base with its co-director Liam O’Meara recently to learn all about the company – from its origins to the projects it has on-going at the moment.
Business is good these days at OMB Farm Buildings Ltd and the plan for brothers Liam and Dermot O’Meara is to try and keep things that way right through to next year.
Established 20 years ago by the two siblings, the company operates with five full-time staff from its premises in Castletown, Fortal, Birr, Co Offaly.
Today, OMB Farm Buildings Ltd specialises in all types of farm builds, including sheds, tanks, milking parlours and silage pits, and it sees this family-run venture very much busy all year round.
Irish Tractor Agri & Plant spoke with Liam O’Meara to hear more on the ins and outs of the company, the secret behind its success to date and its hopes going forward.
“The company has been established about 20 years now and we have five full-time staff working here,” Liam outlined.
“We basically do all types of farm builds for our customers, so whatever they need – sheds, parlours, slurry pits – we can do it for them.”
The origins of the business date back to a time when Liam’s father Jim O’Meara took the decision to go out on his own with his farm buildings venture.
Jim’s two sons followed in his footsteps and, since his retirement, they have been heading up OMB Farm Buildings Ltd and carrying on the good work associated with the O’Meara family name around the area.
“Our father would have been at the farm buildings all the time and had a good name around the area for the work that he did,” said Liam.
“He’s retired now, but he went out on his own years ago and Dermot and I would’ve helped him in the summers growing up. We’re both running the business together now.”
And business itself is good.
Despite the world changing over the past 24 months as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, OMB Farm Buildings Ltd has remained very much busy.
The Irish government lockdowns which were enforced to try and combat the spread of the virus throughout the country, thankfully, did not have a hugely negative impact on the company’s projects.
“It’s very busy here at the moment and we have plenty on for the next few weeks and months as it stands,” explained Liam.
“We weren’t really impacted by Covid (that much). Maybe for the first two weeks or so of the first lockdown but, ever since then, it’s been very busy here.
“We do a lot of work in Offaly, north Tipperary and over into Nenagh and a lot of our customers would still be with us from our father’s time in running the business, so it helps to keep us busy all year round.”
OMB Farm Buildings Ltd just recently finished a project close-by to them in Castletown which saw two brand new milking parlours installed and, at the moment, they are carrying out a new tank for local farmer John Brennan, as well as finishing off two silage pits elsewhere.
It’s all go and, as Liam himself told us, it’s work that keeps them occupied all year round as well.
“At the moment, I would say that tanks and silage pits are the busiest for us,” he said.
“Unfortunately, everything is so expensive right now with the cost of materials but we work within a huge customer base and the demand is still out there.
“That base has been built up from my father’s time and now we find ourselves working with the same families of the people he would’ve carried out work for all those years ago.
“It’s busy all year round and the milking parlours are another huge thing for us here which helps us stay busy 12 months a year.”
So, the burning question is, what has been the secret behind the company’s success down through the years?
How has a small start-up grown into a thriving venture with a golden reputation for its work all over Offaly and beyond the Faithful County’s borders?
For Liam himself, he credits the work his father carried out in the past and the customers which have remained loyal to the company over the years.
“I suppose it’s the fact that we’re a family-run business and we’d have a good reputation for the work that we do here,” he said.
“I have to say also that we have very good customers here that have been great to us down through the years.”
Looking towards the months ahead for OMB Farm Buildings Ltd, Liam says he’s hoping for more of the same for the company with regards to the current rate of business.
As well as that, it’ll once again all be about keeping the customers satisfied down around Castletown.
“We just hope to stay busy like we are at the minute. Stay going the way we have been and keep the customers happy as well,” he concluded.
OMB Farm Buildings Ltd
Castletown,
Fortal,
Birr,
Co Offaly
Mobile: 087 2666 337
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 4, July/August 2022
