F.S. Herron Ltd is renowned for producing the highest quality animal feeds for cattle, sheep, pigs and horses, delivering their feeds throughout Northern Ireland and ensuring their customers’ livestock enjoy the best diet possible. Managing Director David Aiken filled us in on the rest.
Established over 50 years, F.S. Herron Ltd in Leitrim, Co. Down has earned itself a glowing reputation for producing top quality animal feeds for all its customers’ livestock requirements.
The company was founded by F.S. Herron during the 1960s and since that time it has grown into a leader when it comes to providing products of quality which are custom made to meet farmers’ specific requirements.
David Aiken the Managing Director of the business nowadays who, having first joined the company back in 1981, has seen some changes down through the years which have helped develop F.S. Herron into what it is today.
“We’re based at 4 Backaderry Road, Leitrim, Castlewellan, Co Down BT31 9SL,” explained David.
“The company was first established back in the 1960s and at the moment there are 13 full-time staff working here, including myself and my daughter Louise.”
Indeed F.S. Herron is very much a family run business and the Aikens and their staff have endeavoured to make sure that the company’s proud tradition has been carried through after having passed half a century in existence.
David explained that while what they’re about today may differ slightly from what they were about 50 years ago, the core values of F.S. Herron still remain.
“We manufacture animal feeds for cattle, sheep, pigs and horses but mainly our feeds are for ruminants, which is mostly what we focus on but we do offer feeds for those different animals as well,” the Managing Director outlined.
“They’d have started manufacturing here for themselves back in the 1960s and they eventually installed a press in 1981. When that happened that’s around the time I started here, so I guess you could say that I’m here 35 years now in total.
“Back then the company would have been providing lime and fertilizer as well, but they stopped that and now we solely concentrate on animal feeds here.”
F.S. Herron have created a range of market leading animal feeds and each product is adapted for the needs of the animal group.
All of their animal feeds are stocked with local suppliers throughout Northern Ireland, delivering throughout several of the six counties and they also have stockists country-wide so that their customers will be able to find the closest one.
Finding loyal customers has never been an issue at F.S. Herron but their head of operations doesn’t sugar-coat the fact that things are difficult right now for farmers countrywide.
“Business is tough at the moment, there’s no point in trying to hide that,” David admitted.
“Right now we’re steady and we’re kept going but the last year or so has been tough on farmers with beef and milk prices being so bad. That makes it tough on everyone but you have to feel for the farmers because they are getting it very tight at the minute, so hopefully things will eventually turn around.”
Farmers in and around Castlewellan don’t stray too far away from F.S. Herron when it comes to their animal feeds needs, as the business is renowned in the village situated between Slieve Croob and the Mourne Mountains.
“The majority of our customers would be local and we’d have a few from outside the county as well,” said David.
“Our customers are very loyal to us and always have been down through the years. We try and cover their needs as best we can and I think that’s part of the reason why they’ve kept coming back to us over the years.”
Another part of the reason for their customers’ constant return comes down to the company catering for their specific needs, as David outlined:
“We make feeds to suit our customers’ requirements, whether they need 1 tonne or 15 tonne of product” he said. “We can custom make it to suit the farmers’ needs – our products aren’t just made to cover all farmers – and it’s another reason why I think they come to us first ahead of our competitors.”
Offering a quick and reliable delivery service also helps to ensure repeat business from farmers both locally and outside Down’s borders.
While F.S. Herron is renowned for providing their service throughout the North, two counties in particular have always come into focus down through the years.
“We would cover all of Northern Ireland but mostly our feeds go to farmers in Down and Armagh,” said David.
“We have four trucks on the road, all Volvos, and we guarantee a quick delivery service for our customers with them. They can call us in the morning, order what they need and we’ll have it out to them by the next day.”
In order to help keep up with demand, F.S. Herron’s facilities, which have been in place since 1980, have seen some upgrading of late.
Part of the package two years ago included the refurbishment of the office block and the upgrading of both the office computer system and the two presses, so as to ensure that quality products keep on churning out.
“From October right through until the end of May are the busy times for us and you need to have the right facilities in place to make sure you keep up with the customers’ demands,” David pointed out.
“It’s quieter right now being that it’s the summer but we’re still kept ticking over and that’s about as much as you can hope for this time of year, especially with the way things are for farmers right now. We just hope that things will improve for dairy farmers and that they get a better price for their beef and milk because it’s very tough out there at the moment.”
Going forward, David has pledged that maintaining the high quality of their products will continue to be paramount.
“The big thing for us has always been quality and I think our customers appreciate that. It’s what we always try to keep to in order to make sure that we produce the best possible product for our customers and, as I said, I think that’s why they choose us and why we’ve been around for as long as we have,” he concluded.
F.S. Herron Ltd
Address: 4-6 Backaderry
Road, Leitrim, Castlewellan,
Co. Down BT31 9SL
Tel: 028 4065 0236
Fax: 028 4065 0754
Web: fsherron.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 6, July/August 2016
