Approaching seven years since they were officially established, Abbey Tree Services in Boyle, Co Roscommon have developed into a leader in serving customers in the care and maintenance of trees. Company co-director Liam McQuaid told us more.
Starting a company from scratch is no simple feat, especially in the middle of a stinging economic downturn, but the evidence since 2009 has shown that Liam McQuaid and Mark O’Connor have managed to make it work.
Fully insured domestic, commercial and utility timber cutters, Abbey Tree Services are now approaching another three-year contract with ESB Newtorks and continue to provide all aspects of tree maintenance, tree care and removals for their customers.
For Liam, the venture has been an experience for him and one that he’s certainly glad he decided to dive into along with his business partner.
“The company was started in August 2009 by myself and Mark O’Connor,” he outlined.
“The both of us went to Ballyhaise College and when we started the company together we primarily started out with ESB contracts. They got us up and running, so to speak, and over the next few years we gradually started to take on more and more staff.”
Liam and Mark used their wits as best they could at the start, after having felt that there was a niche for a tree service company in Liam’s hometown of Boyle, and began to secure contracts with all different kinds of clients.
Liam pointed out that as the workforce began to increase, it became more and more clear that a strong background in forestry was required for staff members.
“We sort of saw a gap in the market for this kind of business and most of our employees ended up coming out of Ballyhaise College. So from there we approached some County Councils, like Sligo and Roscommon; mostly areas where there was road building going on.
“We also had a background in forestry and eventually ended up going into forestry as well.
“North West Forestry up in Donegal runs a good safety program up there and most of our staff would have had to train and get their accreditation up there.”
Another huge aspect of courses is safety and the company’s flawless record thus far is part of the reason why clientele will choose them first.
“Safety is a massive thing in this line of work. No two ways about it,” Liam explained.
“The ESB keep you updated in its safety systems and problems can often arise in various different jobs; it’s a day-to-day thing. So safety is definitely paramount for us.”
Needless to say, safety applies to every aspect of the business for Liam, Mark and their staff – the latest of which being hedge-cutting, after the decision was taken by management to introduce it at the start of 2014.
“We started our hedge-cutting service two years ago. We have a clipper and a hoist, both of which are very handy for this line of work,” said the co-director.
“You are mostly dealing with land owners, and that’s a big part of working with ESB as well, so a lot of it is good relations and making sure you keep them satisfied.”
As previously alluded to, Abbey Tree Services got started in the middle of Ireland’s economic downturn and has since prospered each year to the point where they now employ 10 staff when they’re at their busiest during the year.
“We started in the middle of the recession but when you know what you want that shouldn’t stop you,” Liam stated.
“You get different kinds of customers, some on good salaries and others that don’t have a good pile – you still have to satisfy them both. That’s what we try to do here with our work.
“We’ve gained a lot of repeat business over the past six or seven years now and word of mouth has been a big thing for us. We’ve done jobs in as far as Galway, Longford and Mullingar and had customers coming back to us for more work.
“Some people might want you to come out at eight o’clock in the evening; some might want you to call out in the middle of the night and you have to accommodate them.”
The fact that the company operates out of Boyle has its advantages too, as the town native himself discussed: “Boyle is very central and it sees us working all over. You have to be professional about a job but you can’t be everywhere at once, so it’s all about communication with your customers too.”
So why does Abbey Tree Services tend to get chosen first by its clientele?
“Value for money has a lot to do with it,” Liam responded.
“No job is too big and no job is too small. You need to be versatile and when they call you back for the next job you know that you’ve established trust there.”
The company are currently tendering for a new three-year contract with ESB, which Liam is confident that they can secure. If not, they’ll continue to do what they’re doing with hopes of expansion elsewhere.
“We’ve done some work for Coiltte in the past but we have quite a big program with ESB Networks at the minute, as well as the County Council,” he said.
“We’ve guys coming back from abroad as well and you need to have a good background in forestry for this line of work, so it’ll be good to get them back
“It’s the times we live in; every business has to be at the races. If we ended up striking a huge tender with ESB we’d have to take on more employees. We tend to stick with youth here, I’d be the oldest at 37, so we have that blend of youth and experience you need.”
With a new Volkswagen Transporter recently added to their impressive fleet, Abbey Tree Services are preparing for more busy times ahead and “there’s plenty of overheads in maintaining the machinery”, according to Liam.
“The hope is to just keep going like we’re going and be in with a fighting chance,” he said. “I’d like to see us expanding more and still be expanding in 10 years’ time. That’s the hope.”
Since 2009, the company’s clientele has swelled from 150 to 700 last year, so Liam and co will certainly be hoping the trend continues.
Abbey Tree Services
Address: 11 Curlew View,
Boyle, Co Roscommon
Mob: 086 2215570
Web: abbeytreeservices.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 6, July/August 2016
