Set-up in 1990, M&S Plant Spares Ltd in Co Longford is a family run business, catering for the construction industry and supplies parts for numerous leading brands. John Kennedy has been the company’s store manager for more than two decades now and filled us in on the business.
They say that family businesses often work out to be the best ones, and over the years M&S Plant Spares Ltd has grown to become a leader in the supplying of parts for the construction industry all over Ireland and beyond.
Founded by Dermot Manning back in 1990, the Co Longford native was keen to create a business which was unrivalled with regards to its competitive prices and first class service. That objective has since been achieved as M&S Plant Spares Ltd is now renowned for the value of its products all throughout the Midlands and has branched out online in recent years, so as to try and reach an unlimited customer base.
Today the company are leading suppliers of spare parts for leading brands such as Hitachi, CAT, JCB, Kobelco, Komatsu etc for their customers all throughout the country and the world.
They have in stock thousands of parts at very competitive prices including undercarriage, filter kits, exhausts, electrical parts, cab glass, tips and teeth, slewing rings etc.
John Kennedy has been a part of the team at M&S Plant Spares since 1996 and has seen the business grow from strength to strength over the years towards developing into the solid outfit that it is today.
“We’re here at the IDA Business Park on the Ballinalee Road in Longford town,” explained John, who is store manager at M&S Plant Spares Ltd.
“We’ve been established more than 25 years now and have 10 full-time staff working here. The Managing Director is Dermot Manning and his family would have founded the company back in 1980 when it was started up in Edgeworthstown.”
Nowadays, the business is operated out of Longford town and, as aforementioned caters largely for the construction industry.
Cab glass, oils and greases, chains, rollers, sprockets, idlers and rubber tracks are all supplied at the store at M&S Plant Spares, or on the company’s website (www.msplantspares.ie).
They also repair hydraulic pumps and motors, while supplying all engine parts, starters, alternators, PVC Units, solenoids and sensors etc.
John gave us some more insight into what they specialise in and where exactly some of the parts are going across the globe.
“Basically what we do here is supply spare parts for the construction sector, excavators in particular,” he stated.
“We have thousands of spare parts here at very competitive prices and we sell a lot of them abroad to places like the US, Scandinavia and Africa.
“We’d also stock under carriage, filter kits, exhausts, electrical parts, seals and seal kits, slew rings etc.”
With such wide range, it’s little wonder why customers choose M&S Plant Spares first when it comes to their construction needs. When you go to their store, they’ll more than likely have what you’re looking for and if the distance is too far to travel they’ll have the product delivered to you the next day via courier.
That next day service has earned rave reviews for M&S Plant Spares over the years and even throughout the economic recession, which stung the construction industry in this country so badly, they managed to battle through.
Right now, they’re beginning to experience the benefits of an upturn that is emerging, according to their store manager.
“We’re going from strength to strength and we can certainly see an improvement from the years of the downturn. Business is consistent right now and it keeps us busy all year round,” said John.
“About 50 per cent of our business would be from repeat business from customers. Down through the years, we’ve kept a good relationship with our regular customers and between that and the competitive rates that we sell at they continue to come back to us.”
For those customers that are unable to come into the store, Dermot Manning figured out the issue a long time ago.
“We offer our customers all over Ireland a next day delivery service and the courier that we would general use for that would be GLS,” said John.
“Offering customers a next day delivery service is vital, we feel, as many of them would be in a rush for parts and would go elsewhere to look for them if we weren’t able to get it to them by tomorrow.”
The latest platform for getting their products to the customers has been through an efficiently designed website which has each and every product in the store available for order.
“You can order parts on our website – www.msplantspares.ie, which is something that has really taken off for us,” said John.
“It has opened us up to countries all over the world and although it took a lot of work to design and put up all the products, it has most definitely been worth it from our point of view and we’ll continue to work on it to make it better.”
As another part of the company’s new horizons, they recently relocated their store to the IDA Business Park just outside Longford town – a move which John feels will have plenty of benefits for the long-term.
“We moved into our new premises after Christmas in Longford town from Edgeworthstown and it has been going very well for us ever since,” he said.”
“As I said, it’s going from strength to strength and this new premises gives us room to expand the business if needs be. We’ve recently launched our new website, which is up and running and you can order thousands of different parts on it.”
He concluded: “We guarantee a next day delivery all over Ireland and a two to three day deliver outside of Ireland.”
M&S Plant Spares Ltd
Address: IDA Business Park,
Ballinalee Road, Longford
Parts Hotline: (0)43 3362500
Out of Hours: (0)87 0507688
Web: www.msplantspares.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 6, July/August 2016
