Bob Allen (Nutritional Supplements) Ltd celebrated the magnificent milestone of 30 years in business this July. A specialist manufacturer of animal feed supplements, the Bandon, Co Cork-based company prides itself on offering their many customers the personal touch.
Bob Allen (Nutritional Supplements) Ltd was formed in 1986 by Bob Allen who had previously been a sole trader, starting the business five years earlier.
In the early days, Bob concentrated on direct farm sales and built up a strong presence in West Cork, his local area.
Bob’s son Gerald and his wife Jane took over the company following his father’s retirement in 1994 and have continued to develop the business since then.
They still like to maintain their strong West Cork links but have managed to extend their sales area to the whole country & Northern Ireland by promoting their minerals sales through agricultural shows and through farmer to farmer recommendations.
“We still have original customers stretching back to 1982 when Bob started out,” revealed Jane Allen; “and also sons and daughters of farmers who have stayed with us when their parents have retired.
“Sadly, Bob passed away recently, on May 2nd this year. He was a lovely man and our farmers always had a kind word to say about him.”
Bob’s legacy is a progressive animal feeds company which manufactures minerals for cows, cattle, sheep, and horses: including a range of minerals which can be sold on an off-the-shelf basis. These would be aimed at the home mixer and farmers looking for the best performance from their herd; their horse products are suitable for all horses and the range is designed to be flexible with a foundation broad spectrum mineral with add-ons that can be varied depending on your horse.
Bob Allen (Nutritional Supplements) Ltd’s dairy and beef range includes standard minerals and plus minerals with proteinated trace elements and higher levels of vitamins in a full range of pre calver and dairy mixtures, including those for suckler herds. Beef minerals for intensive and grazed herds and sheep mixes for ewes and lambs and intensive store lambs. Extras such as seaweed meal and yeast can be included as required.
The company’s mission statement is ‘to create the best mineral supplements to solve the potential and actual mineral problems of the animal (herd or individual), to achieve optimum health and performance, from the best/most suitable products available; within the monetary constraints available to the farmer or stockman: and encompass related activities to achieve this aim; while including feed safety as a priority within their manufacturing system’.
Licensed by the Department of Agriculture with EU and Bord Bia Approval to manufacture premixtures and powder & liquid mineral mixtures, they endeavour to bring the latest and most advanced aspects of current thinking on animal nutrition direct into the farmyard, whilst using the historical methods of supplementation to their best advantage.
They make minerals to order if a specialist mix is required with the analysis determined by themselves in conjunction with their consultant nutritionist or by a nutritionist already employed by the farmer.
They do on-site visits as required but also deal with farmers on the phone, so distance is not a problem.
Their products are available direct which is ideal for the home mixer. The business has expanded in its processing and product lines supplying local millers, shops and co operatives with both mineral supplements and their complementary products.
“Our products are high-spec,” Jane outlined. “If you have issues with your cows, if you’re not happy with their performance for example, come to us and we’ll talk or meet with you one-on-one to find out what the situation is and decide on a programme to help achieve the desired results; appropriate feeding and management of forages and the management of the cows themselves all need to be considered.
“Our key selling point is helping the farmer to get the maximum out of their animals by focussing on the farmers’ individual requirements, each farm is unique. We’re specialists in that way because even though we’re up against multi-nationals, we deal with farmers personally.”
Jane continued: “We have to continually develop what we do because genetics and feed usage are developing all the time. Basic feeds stay the same but you have to utilise them, and your ingredients, more efficiently. We’re halfway between a feed and a pharmaceutical company. That perfectly describes where we are and smart nutrition is under constant development.”
How is business going at the moment? “Business is up on last year which is great,” Jane, whose daughter Madeline Allen is well-known in show jumping circles and a great promoter of the family company’s products, answered.
“Milk price is obviously a big challenge at the minute. We’re only just finishing the first year of no quotas and that has led to some interesting challenges in the past year. We’ve had farmers increase their herd numbers and when doing that, they were gambling on milk prices. So there are challenges when it comes to working around that and you have to be flexible.
“Because we supply designer minerals in effect, we’re never going to compete with the bigger companies. What we do is provide a particular service to particular farmers and we prefer to consolidate our existing customer base and expand that through recommendation.”
To find out more, give Jane and the team at Bob Allen (Nutritional Supplements) Ltd a call on the number below.
Bob Allen (Nutritional Supplements) Ltd
Mount Pleasant
Bandon
Co.Cork
Phone: +353 21 7330096
Fax: +353 21 7330168
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.allennutrition.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 6, July/August 2016
Bob Allen, Nutritional, Supplements
