Operating out of Collooney, Co Sligo, Lawson Tyres provides its customers with tyre sales, fitting, call outs and puncture repairs. Irish Tractor & Agri touched base with owner and founder Alan Lawson to hear all about this young and thriving business.
These are busy times for Alan Lawson and his business venture and the plan for the Co Sligo native is to try and keep things that way right through to 2022.
By then, Lawson Tyres will have marked five years in business and perhaps the world will even be in a better place with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic as vaccines continue to be rolled out across the globe.
For Alan himself, steady growth for his business had been the plan all along when he decided to set- up shop in 2017 with one van and the right background having previously worked in the mechanic game.
Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with Alan recently to learn all about his small and successful company from its origins to the state of business today.
“We’d be based in Collooney, Co Sligo and the business itself is established four years now,” he outlined. “The majority of what we do here is mobile tractor and truck breakdowns and we would fit a lot of new tyres.
“I started off doing cars but, being from a farming background, I started getting in with the farmers more and more and it’s a lot of what I do now.”
Along with a farming background, Alan had the experience of having worked with different mechanics down through the years.
He opted to go out on his own in 2017 and hasn’t looked back since, as business has seemingly grown with each passing year for Lawson Tyres. However, it did take some time to get off the ground, as he himself outlined.
“I would have been in the mechanic game for years and with my background I just took the decision to get into this,” said Alan.
“It took a bit of time to get off the ground but I got busier and busier as the months went by and, thankfully, I’m still busy here today.”
2020 was a year like no other with regards to the impact the Covid-19 pandemic had on (and continues to have) on the entire globe.
Businesses throughout Ireland felt the pandemic’s effects and, of course, the government restrictions which followed in order to try and combat the spread of the virus.
Alan himself is glad to report that his young business hasn’t been too badly hindered by the restrictions, as he continues to service customers all over Sligo and beyond the Yeats County’s borders.
“It was busy as usual throughout last year,” he said. “When the first lockdown hit, we might have felt a bit of impact from it but, overall, business hasn’t been affected that much by the lockdowns and restrictions.
“It’s kind of steady all year round here, to be honest.”
So, what has been the secret to success? How has a small mobile tyre repairs start up managed to grow to the point where it’s now busy 12 months a year?
The way Alan sees it, providing reliability goes a long way in this game and ensures that customers can count on Lawson Tyres at every turn.
“I think that it’s a reliable service that we provide here,” he said. “At the absolute maximum, it’d be an hour-and-a-half until I’m with a customer and maybe not even that.
“The service is key and I’ve covered the majority of Sligo at this stage, going into Leitrim and Roscommon at times as well.
“We could take on more work but, if you do that, it could potentially leave you stranded for other customers when it comes to going too far outside the county.
As Lawson Tyres nears closer and closer to half a decade in existence, its founder is clearly content with its current size as well as its customer base.
Business is good and while he understandably had his reservations towards the end of 2020, he says he can’t complain about how things have panned out thus far this year.
“I was sceptical enough coming into the new year, to be honest,” Alan admitted. “After looking at the figures though, it is probably better than this time last year.
He continued: “Business is better now than it was 12 months ago in spite of everything going on at the moment. Right now, we have two vans fully kitted out for breakdowns.
“So, things are going well and hopefully they will continue to go well over the next couple of months. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers and suppliers for their continued support over the years.”
Here’s to many more.
Lawson Tyres
Collooney
Co Sligo.
Mobile: 087 151 8607
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 9 No 5, September/October 2021
