Operating out of Cashel in County Tipperary, M&S Machinery has been named by New Holland as Irish Dealer of the Year for the past two years. We touched base with Paudie Slattery to find out more about this exceptional family business’ longstanding loyalty to the New Holland marque as well as the extensive array of products and services delivered to Irish farmers and contractors on a daily basis.
The genesis of M&S Machinery goes back more than 40 years to the early ‘eighties, when – in the middle of a recession – Pat Slattery and his then business partner Tom Meehan began repairing agricultural machinery in a rented shed in Ballylooby, County Tipperary.
On the back of consistently providing excellent services, the business grew gradually and organically to become a market-leading supplier of high-quality new and used tractors and machinery.
Pat’s son Paudie oversees the day-to-day running of the business today and is justifiably proud of the fact that M&S Machinery was selected as New Holland’s Irish Dealer of the Year for both 2023 and 2024: “It was a nice acknowledgement to get, in fairness,” he comments. “It’s good to know that they are happy with us and that our efforts are appreciated.”
The relationship between M&S Machinery and New Holland dates back more than 30 years. “We’ve been with them since the beginning, really – since the merger of Fiat and Ford to form New Holland in 1993,” Paudie confirms. “Prior to that, we had also been a main Fiat dealer since 1987, so we’ve been with them a long time alright.”
M&S Machinery are unique nationwide in that they are a full-line New Holland dealer, covering the full tractor, combine harvester and construction machinery line-ups, all of which are of great interest to the farming community, with the construction range, for example, including loading shovels which contractors use for silage work.
“The quality of New Holland tractors is obviously in a league of its own and they also offer a great range to suit every requirement. As a main dealer, we do sales, service, repairs and parts, and another one of the great things about New Holland is that their parts are very affordable, which is a big thing.
“The cost of ownership of a New Holland tractor is not crazy and that’s a huge factor to consider when you are investing massive money is a new tractor. And, let’s be honest about it, there’s no such thing as small money for a tractor any more. The average tractor today is coming in at around €140,000 including VAT, which is a huge investment, so you have to provide your customers with great quality and unbeatable service.”
Since Day One, service has been at the very heart of everything M&S Machinery does, with the original customer-focused ethos of the business still very much evident today. Pat, Paudie and the entire team go out of their way to make sure that customers are never stuck and that their equipment is always firing on all cylinders.
“We do full service, with seven technicians in the workshop and a few part-time lads as well to make sure everything is fully covered,” Paudie points out. “You’d need them all too. We’re covering Limerick and Tipp with the New Holland tractors but with the harvester line-up, you are covering half of the country, which is a big responsibility and it’s all hands on deck at that time of year. In fairness to the lads, we have a great team here and they really do look after our customers.”
You won’t get a better selection of top-performance, value-added, pre-owned New Holland tractors anywhere else in Ireland: “When we get in a second-hand New Holland, we tend to do them up and sell them out again with a warranty,” Paudie confirms. “At any given time, we’d have up to 40 or 50 excellent second-hand New Hollands here in the yard, ranging from 500 hours up to 12,000 hours.
“This is a very important part of the business. A lot of other dealers like to sell new models only and to flick the second-hand ones off into the trade but we tend to give them a full workover and sell them ourselves. We make sure they are in great condition leaving the yard and there is unbelievable value to be had in a good second-hand New Holland, especially with the backup service we provide.
“We also keep a lot of stuff in stock, so if a contractor is waiting for a part to come in or for a machine to be fixed, we can sort him out with a replacement machine while he’s waiting.”
As well as New Holland, M&S Machinery also sell a comprehensive range of McHale, Hi-Spec, Strautmann, A. Wilson, McConnel, Smyth Trailers, NC Engineering, and MDE machinery and implements. “McHale is our second-biggest seller and they are a very good company to deal with. They manufacture a super product that’s second to none and I couldn’t recommend them highly enough.”
M&S Machinery is an award-winning tractor and agri machinery dealership and workshop that has been looking after farmers’ every need for well over four decades. With the second generation now at the helm and that unswerving commitment to looking after customers very much intact, farmers and contractors alike in Tipperary, Limerick and further afield can rest assured that there’s much more to come from New Holland’s back-to-back Irish Dealer of the Year:
“We always reinvest a lot of money back into the business rather than trying to pull out a big wage for ourselves,” Paudie concludes. “We carry a vast stock of tractors and machinery and we’re constantly trying to find ways to improve our premises and our business as best we can to make sure we’re always offering our customers value, quality, service and choice.”
M&S Machinery,
Cork Road,
Cashel,
County Tipperary.
Tel: 062 62555
Mobile: 086 1923216
Fax: 062 62533
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mandsmachinery
