As Ireland’s first Powered by Kramp retail store, BVS Parts in Athy, County Kildare is an industry-leading family-run business which supplies a comprehensive range of farm and garden products to customers nationwide. We touched base with general manager Declan Maher, who runs BVS Parts alongside his brother Alan, to discuss the dramatic increase in demand being experienced by both their physical shop and online store.
Farmers and contractors from across County Kildare and much further afield know they can count on BVS Parts in Athy for all their agri parts needs.
BVS Parts was established in early 2014 by brothers Alan and Declan Maher, operating from a small shed beside the family home, initially working predominantly mending hydraulics hoses and components before quickly establishing themselves as an agri parts store supplying the local community with filters, oils and grease, etc.
They expanded to supply machinery parts for tractors, ploughs, tillers, seeders, cultivators, diggers and tracked machinery, consistently sourcing excellent products and complementing them with a customer-focused service to match.
The family business went from strength to strength over the years, relocating to spacious new premises on Kilkenny Road dedicated to the supply of farm and garden products before opening the doors to Ireland’s first Powered by Kramp retail store in 2019.
The subsequent graduation into online sales represented another landmark departure for BVS Parts, who stock an exhaustive range of parts from leading manufacturers and continue to record exponential growth.
Kramp is Europe’s largest specialist distributor of OEM and spurious spare parts and accessories in the agriculture, garden, construction and engineering industries.
Their range features over 500,000 products from over 4,000 top brands available with prompt delivery, so when a customer – be it a small business or an individual – places an order through BVS (Barrow Valley Spares) Parts, they can rest assured that they will get whatever product they need when they need it. From Horsch, John Deere, Amazone, Kuhn, Kverneland, Claas, JCB and Stanley to Caterpillar, New Holland, Krone, Hitachi, Fendt, Stihl, Massey Ferguson, Lemken, Dunlop, Kawasaki and much, much more besides, BVS Parts Powered by Kramp have got you covered when it comes to agri parts and products.
“We’re extremely busy here at the moment, with more stuff coming in all the time and customers can also log-on online and get instant access to over 500,000 products which can be ordered for delivery,” Declan states. “Summer is a very busy time of year and we could probably do with a few more lads here, to be honest.
“It all began with our father, who started out doing lawnmower sales and repairs,” the personable Kildare man continues, reflecting on the genesis of the business. “Alan is a mechanic by trade and he started the business doing hydraulic hoses, filters, oils, etc. and as it started to expand I came on board after finishing college.
“The two of us are here in the store full time, along with our nephew. Things have really taken off since we signed up to become Ireland’s first Powered by Kramp store and also since expanding into online sales. Kramp supplies parts for literally any agri machine or brand, and partnering with them gave us a great jumpstart. Then Brexit and Covid hit in quick succession, which wasn’t ideal, although Covid did at least help to drive our online shop.”
To supplement the Powered by Kramp trade accounts, BVS Parts are also in the process of developing a new website which will make some 4,500 products available online to the general public.
They also have a novel agreement in place with the FCI (Farm Contractors of Ireland), whereby contractors can receive a 15 per cent discount when they sign up for a Kramp online account. “With the way things are these days, if you can save any money at all, that’s great,” says Declan. “To save 15 per cent on wearing and maintenance parts for machinery – which is one of the biggest expenses farmers have – is a significant saving.”
The physical store in Athy was opened to the public seven years ago and was substantially refurbished and expanded four years ago in conjunction with the launch of the Powered by Kramp store. The shop is packed with consumables and parts to replace literally anything that can break in the field.
“We’re doing a lot of business with contractors and also supply a couple of smaller manufacturers of farm equipment, who we supply with all their parts and consumables and they can get a full trade discount on large orders.”
Offering farmers and contractors access to the largest agri parts selection in Europe, BVS Parts also sell everything from tool kits and work wear to machinery paint, lawnmowers, LED lights, oil, grease, filters, cable ties, cast iron drinkers, compressors, generators, air tools, power washers, vacuums, welding equipment, etc., while hydraulic pipes are made in store.
The benefits of being a Powered by Kramp store are many and Declan’s experience has been that once customers start using the Kramp app they don’t go back to buying parts the old way. “No dealer is going to have all the parts so a farmer or contractor who wants to get parts from a number of different brands could have to drive halfway around the country looking for them, whereas with the Kramp app you can get them all in one go. They have parts for every tractor, for example, and that is some feat.
“When people start to use this service they tend to stay with us because it is so convenient and you are saving time first and foremost,” Declan concludes. “If you can get the vast majority of what you need easily and in one place, you are saving on time and a lot of people don’t appreciate the value of their own time. More recently we have started to install the Kramp workshop solutions (KWS) system into contractors own yards. This is a shelving system that focuses solely on the needs of the contractors for example if a contractor has a New Holland and Fendt tractors, Claas Combine, Welger baler, amazone seed drill, Vaderstad cultivator and kverneland plough etc. We look at everything, put in shelving into your shed and stock it with the parts you need for your machinery so you’re never stopped for long. In this situation then it could be as simple as having a spare set of filters for the tractors, 2x pick up bearing and tines for the baler, spare sections and fingers for the combine, fan belts for the seed drill, hub disc for the vaderstad and a spare hydraulic hose for the plough. These are the things that inevitably break on a Saturday evening and cost you a day and a half in down time.”
Add it value for money and unbeatable customer service and it’s not too hard to see why BVS Parts Powered by Kramp is such a fantastic success story – and one with many more chapters remaining to be written!
BVS Parts,
Warehouse unit 2,
Kilkenny Road,
Athy,
County Kildare.
Tel: 059 863 7019
Email: [email protected]
Web: bvsparts.ie
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bvspartsathy
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 11 No 4, August/September 2023
