Deeside Country Store in Dunleer, Co Louth offers its customers a wide range of products and is considered to be the ‘one-stop shop’ for all your farming needs. Store owner Billy O’Dea told more to Irish Tractor & Agri when we caught up with him recently.
Some farmers may be finding it tough at present, but the Deeside Country Store in Co Louth have been continually making it easier for them for close to 25 years now.
Established in 1992, the Country Store has grown to become one of the largest independent Agri merchants in the north east region with a glowing reputation for looking after its customers in a top class manner.
Billy O’Dea and his team are the people behind the business and gave us the lowdown on what they’re all about, as well as the services which they provide.
“We’re up and running since 1992 and have 14 full-time staff, with four part-time as well,” Billy outlined.
“Basically, what we do here is give advice to tillage farmers and farmers in general in the areas of wheat, barley rapeseed beans, potatoes oats and grassland. We supply technical advice to them and spray would be our speciality.
“We also trade a lot of grain, handle a lot of grain and we dry grain as well. We dry a lot of grain each year most of it is destined for the animal feed business while oats and beans are exported for human consumption.”
Originally set-up in the town of Ardee, Deeside Country Store relocated to Richardstown, Dunleer, Co Louth eight years ago and over the past number of years the business has diversified immensely.
At this stage purpose built grain facilities were constructed and a country store shop was opened.
Aside from general agri supplies that they have, they now stock a large range of garden products, equestrian products, pet care products, fencing supplies, animal equipment, animal feeds and poultry products.
For Billy, the vast range of products which Deeside Country Store has on its shelves and the backup provided by trained staff are the core reasons why they continue to gain such strong repeat business from their customers in the new shop.
“It’s a shop that sells everything from pet food to gardening materials, so it’s basically like a local Co-op and a Woodies put together,” he stated.
“It’s a ‘One-Stop Shop’ for everything really and we feel that’s part of the reason why our customers come to us first.”
A Galway man originally, Billy studied Agricultural Science in UCD before graduating in 1985.
From there, he worked locally for a number of years before setting up his own business and since that time the Deeside Country Store has grown from strength to strength.
The company now employs a full-time staff of 14, having started in the low single figures, and is looking to continue its growth for years to come.
The success of the farmer has a lot to do with whether or not Deeside Country Store is successful or not, and Billy recognised that it’s tough for many of them out there are the moment.
“It’s always challenging, but farmers are resilient,” he pointed out.
“We are only as successful as our customers are and the price of grain is always going up and down. I’ve always felt that farmers are resilient people and the current group are very knowledgeable and innovative. They think outside the box and I don’t think the wider community appreciate that.
“Weather can dictate so much of it, but there’s no doubt that farmers are getting it tough right now and hopefully that will turn around.”
Deeside Country Store offers its customers a range of detailed soil analysis as they believe the soil is foundation of all farming and knowing as much as possible about it is vital. They employ a full team of agronomists to help with this.
On the grain side of things they offer forward contracts every working of the year this has been invaluable in securing high prices for farmers in the past.
In the new shop they also stock a full range of horse feed from Red Mills, Baileys, Stonebridge and Bluegrass and stock a large selection of equestrian hardware from horse rugs to head collars.
With regards to their Pet Care products, the Dunleer-based outfit stocks a full range of general and specialised dog food from Royal Canine, Red Mills, Gain, Feedwell, Pedro and Unipet. As well as this, they sell dog kennels, collars, leads, cat food and a large selection of pet accessories.
On the farming hardware end, Deeside Country Store sell fencing posts, wire, mains and battery fencers and a large selection of fencing equipment. They also stock livestock feeders and drinkers, gates and other farming hardware products.
Along with all of this, invaluable advice is always on offer to the customer from Billy and his staff members.
“We’d give impartial advice to our customers,” he said. “We value their business very much and, of course, we want them making money so they’ll be back next year.
“Our area would be Louth, Meath, north Dublin and a bit of south Monaghan, so we have customers coming from all throughout the north east region and we endeavour to make sure that they’re satisfied with what we have on offer here.”
We are Irish agents for Omex liquid fertilizer which offers new opportunities for tillage and grassland farmers.
Right now, winter planting is getting under way and seed is moving again feeds in the store’s equine section are moving out the door fast, as Billy explained, and the hopes are that they’ll continue to move well along with the various other products on offer.
“Horse feed is very popular here amongst our customers and it’s selling well for us,” he said.
“We also have 27 different types of dog food – I didn’t even know there were that many different types of breeds – so that gives you an idea of the range of products that we have on offer.
On the household end, Deeside Country Store offer everything from fire logs to winter clothing, so for all your general agri needs look no further than this one stop shop in Dunleer.
Deeside Country Store
Address: Richardstown,
Dunleer, Co Louth
Tel: +353 41 68 63524
Fax: +353 41 68 63548
Web: deesideagri.com
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 8, October 2016
