2015 is a landmark year for Castlebar Farm Machinery as they celebrate an incredible 50 years in business. Twenty-fourteen also marks their 40th year as a Case tractor agent. We met up with managing director Tom Jennings to get an update on the fantastic range of products and services provided by Mayo’s premier provider of agricultural machinery.

Castlebar Farm Machinery is a long-running family business that has been providing a premium service to generations of farmers in County Mayo and beyond for the best part of half a century. Through all that time, this business has been defined by a stringent adherence to quality through every facet of the operation, supplying excellent products at a keen price and complementing them with a back-up service that is second to none.

The Jennings family boasts a wealth of experience and expertise of the agricultural machinery sector and they’ve been putting their customers first for nigh on 50 years. That’s why they have such a high customer retention rate and why this particular success story looks set to run for many more years, nay decades, to come.

“My father Tom Snr. would have set the business up in 1965, having worked as a butcher previously before turning his attention to agricultural machinery in the mid-60s,” reflects current proprietor Tom Jennings. “He took on I.A.M. in 1970 and then took on the David Browns [Case] in 1974. He also took on a Deutz franchise in ’71 and sold them up until 1973/74.

“In the early years, he was importing a lot of tractors from England and selling them here, mostly second-hand Masseys, little fresh 35s and 20s – they were very popular back in those days.”

Taking on the Case franchise in 1974 represented a real milestone in the history of CFM. “We have grown hand in hand with Case,” Tom acknowledges. “We have been main dealer for the west of Ireland for 40 years now, which is a long time to be with one product. But we’re 44 years with I.A.M. too and I’d also hold the Taarup / Kverneland in very high regard.”

Castlebar Farm Machinery sells Case tractors exclusively. It doesn’t take Tom long to explain why he is so happy to supply these no-frills machines to farmers across the west: “They’re a great tractor with a great back-up service,” he enthuses. “Their reliability is second to none and they are growing in popularity all the time. At the moment, they are gaining a half a per centage share of the market every year. They are a simple, basic tractor with no electronics and that’s what most people want.

“The farmers around here want a basic tractor, and service parts are also cheap. They have a low running cost and they will go for years on end. They also have an excellent trade-in value.”

A team of 13 is employed at Castlebar Farm Machinery, including technicians in the company’s state-of-the-art workshop, which includes all the latest mod cons for checking horsepower, electronic and mechanical diagnostics, re-spraying, flywheels etc. “Everything is done in-house,” Tom adds. “We don’t just sell tractors but also repair and service them.

“We also have the biggest stores department in the west of Ireland with parts for all makes and models of tractors, balers, mowers and ploughs. And we’d import up to 50 or 60 second-hand tractors from England every year, mostly Case and New Holland. As well as tractors, we sell a full range of new agricultural machinery.”

The full product range is exhaustive but Tom ran us through some of the main manufacturers stocked at Castlebar Farm Machinery…

The new tractors are all Case but they also sell second-hand Case, New Holland, Massey Ferguson and Zetor. New machinery stocked would include Kverneland ploughs, McConnell and Bomford hedge cutters, Hardi, Taral and Gaysa sprayers, Vicon and Cavallo fertiliser sprayers and Kverneland hay machinery not to mention an assortment of quality loading shovels, muck spreaders and smaller equipment.

The third generation of the Jennings family is already on board, with Tom’s son – also called Tom – having qualified as a Case International mechanic last year. Meanwhile, Tom’s sisters Mary and Connie look after the stores and accounts respectively, while brother Peter works in the service department. As a family business, a personal touch is guaranteed and the Jenningses are known and respected the length and breadth of the country.

Turnover of staff at the company is also low and this has led to a consistency and professionalism of service throughout the years. “Eight of the lads would be here for more than 20 years,” Tom confirms. “Of those, we have one lad who is with us for more than 30 years Tom Moran has been here 40+ years. The staff are very, very important to us. We’d be nothing without them.

“Customers are also vitally important and we have benefited from their loyalty over the years. We’d still sell new tractors to people we were dealing with way back in 1974. In fact, 85-90% of our business would probably be repeat business going back to ’74 when we first took on the Davy Brown – that’s a good endorsement for the quality of the product and service.

“We sold 62 new tractors in 1975, which was our first full year selling the Davy Browns – we are still dealing with 60 of those families.”

Looking to the future, Tom is keen to reassure his loyal customers that there is nothing drastic or radical in the pipeline. “I can’t envisage any change in the products whatsoever,” he concludes. “We have no notion of leaving any of our suppliers and we hope they have no notion of leaving us. Business was down a little bit in 2012 and ’13 but there has been a marked improvement so far this year and enquiries for next year are already very encouraging.

“At the end of the day, it will all depend on the price of the cattle, because it’s all livestock and dairy over here. But there still seems to be a bit of life out there and the signs are good that the pick-up will continue. We are very happy with the products we’re selling – both the Davy Browns and the Taarup – and all the evidence suggests that our customers are happy with them too.”

Castlebar Farm Machinery
Turlough Road,
Castlebar,
County Mayo.

Tel: 094 9021307
Fax: 094 9023918

Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 2 No 4, September 2014

Case, Castlebar Farm Machinery