Specialising in all forms of steel fabrication, Brennan Fabrications Mayo Ltd. (BFM) are renowned for delivering strong, high-quality agricultural buildings to farmers along the Mayo / Sligo border, including cost-efficient and durable slatted sheds, milking parlours and machinery sheds. We travelled to Cloonfinish and met up with Kevin Brennan to find out more.
Ultimately, farming is all about community and a sense of togetherness. Nowhere in Ireland is this more evident than in the sparsely-populated regions of Connacht, where all the locals pull together and sustain one another. For three-and-a-half decades, farmers in and around Swinford in east Mayo have been availing of the exceptional services of structural steel specialists, Brennan Fabrications Mayo Ltd., who erect top-quality animal and machinery sheds as well as a range of other steel products such as gates, feeding barriers, sheeting, animal handling equipment, weighing scales, etc.
Reflecting on the coming into being of the family business. Kevin Brennan notes: “My father, Noel, set it up in 1981 and I took over six years ago when he retired.”
The fact that Brennan Fabrications Mayo Ltd. has survived, nay thrived for 35 years tells us more about the quality of the products and services provided to local farmers than a magazine full of features ever could. To what does Kevin attribute the longevity and continued popularity of the business?
“We provide a really good product. We use good materials and we put an excellent finish on it. We always do a really good job and we deliver every building on time and within budget. Once you give a good service, you get a good reputation and farmers will keep doing business with you.”
Regarding the product range, Kevin confirms that it is pretty comprehensive: “Farm buildings are the main thing and we do all types, from parlours to storage sheds. As well as the steel, we also do all of the associated work with the exception of concrete – timber, cladding, gates, doors, barriers etc.”
BFM provides top-quality solutions at competitive rates and the TAMS II scheme ensures that farmers get even better value for money. Little wonder there is such strong demand! “We’ve been very busy in 2016,” Kevin continues. “As things are, I would actually need to double my workforce to deal with all the work that’s coming in. But it’s hard to find the manpower.
“Unfortunately, most of the young people are gone from this neck of the woods. It’s very remote here these days. Knock Airport is eight miles away and a lot of people are flying out to London and maybe coming home for the odd weekend. It’s a case of ‘faraway grass is green’.
“There are only six children living in the village [Cloonfinish] at the moment. There were 50 kids in the village when I was young and there are only three of that crew left now – the rest have moved or emigrated to Dublin, Galway, England, the States etc.
“This area has been ravaged by emigration. There were 26 men milking in the parish when I went to National School and today there are only two. The young people are all gone. The trend is to finish school and then get out of here. An awful lot of people are gone. Even in a lot of households, the husbands are working in Dublin for the week or commuting to Galway. There’s not much to keep people around here…”
However, Brennan Fabrications Mayo Ltd. generates gainful employment for a crew of seven skilled men plus Kevin himself. “Virtually all of the work is for farmers,” he notes. “We do a small bit of commercial buildings as well but there’s not much demand for that kind of work around here at the moment.”
Looking to the future, Kevin is confident that – even though these are difficult times for farmers due to low prices at the farm gate and small margins – there will continue to be strong demand for BFM’s market-leading farm buildings: “The farmer is always a good man to spend money,” he says. “You take the farmer out of the equation and what else is happening? He will always spend a few pound and put it back into the community. They’re squeezed at the minute, so this year it might be just a gate, but it’s always something.
“We get a lot of repeat business and I’d know them all by name at this stage. I’d know the family dog’s names, to be honest!
“Hopefully things will pick up soon for the farming community,” the affable Mayo man concludes. “Beef isn’t great right now but milk is coming back a tiny bit. It’s swings and roundabouts in farming and always has been. It’ll come back again. Mayo is a big county and there’s as much work there as we can do from one end of the week to the other, so we can’t complain.”
Nor can Brennan Fabrications Mayo Ltd.’s customers!
Brennan Fabrications Mayo Ltd.,
Cloonfinish,
Swinford,
County Mayo.
Tel: 094 9251366
Mobile: 087 2381056
Email: [email protected]
www.facebook.com/Brennanfabricationsmayo
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 1, January/February 2017
