Celebrating 15 years in business, GA Contracts in Cullybackey, Co Antrim have been providing their loyal customers with an expert service to the point where they keep coming back. Irish Tractor & Agri spoke with Managing Director Geoff Aitcheson to find out the secret to success.
Making a success out of your company is never an easy feat and in the agricultural contracting game almost anything can happen. Busy times come and go, whether it comes down to the economy or the weather – or both – and Geoff Aitcheson knows this better than most.
Having first set-up GA Contracts around the turn of the millennium, the Co Antrim man has seen plenty of changes in the industry but has always managed to keep his customers with that same feeling of satisfaction once the job’s done.
Geoff’s love for farm machinery and loyalty to his customers are two of the main reasons why GA Contacts will soon be entering into its 16th year in operation, having come through some recent tough economic times unscathed for the most part.
“We’re based in Cullybackey, Co Antrim and I’ve have three working here at the minute,” explained Geoff.
“My wife Julie Ann and I started the company together 15 years ago and I look after the farm end, while she looks after the finances.”
GA Contracts provides its customers with most any service that you can think of for an agricultural contractor, specialising in slurry spreading, in particular.
“We do everything between hedge cutting and silage cutting to round baling, but the main part of the business would be slurry spreading,”
“The weather hasn’t been great as of late and milk prices have been down, so farmers are just doing enough. We’d have a strong customer base here and we’ve always loyal customers from when we started.”
Two years into his new venture, Geoff decided to invest in what would unravel as the core part of his business and 2002 saw him purchase a new system with ultimate low ground pressure.
Umbilical slurry spreading had been getting more and more popular at the time because of how much easier it is on land and Geoff felt it was the only way forward.
He combined the umbilical system with ferry tankers and it allowed the team at GA Contracts to ferry slurry to out-farms, or pump directly onto nearby land, thus providing a unique service that meets the needs of all farmers.
“We’re very pleased with the slurry tankers we have here and we’d like to think we do a good efficient job and I think we’ve a good reputation for that. I think that has kept the customers coming back to us,” he said.
The fleet Geoff operates with is largely made up of John Deere – a brand he has found very trustworthy down through the years.
His love for farm machinery brought him into the industry and he has made some recent modifications to his impressive fleet.
“We do round bailing and recently upgraded the tyres on out fleet. We’re using Michelin tyres now and they are a lot better on soil,” he explained.
“We’ve five John Deeres and two of those would be 140Rs and another is an A125R. They may not be the cheapest brand but they are very reliable and we have a very good relationship with our dealer, Stephen Muir from Coleraine.”
Geoff’s approach has always been one that prioritises his customers and he puts them first even when making new additions to the fleet.
“Basically, we keep all of our machinery up to date and it’s the reason why we kept going down through the years. I buy the machinery to suit the customers, not to suit myself,” he illustrated.
Two years ago, GA Contracts branched out into digger work and the move has their work grow throughout the winter to the point where its workers are now kept busy 12 months a year.
Geoff has been happy to report good news from the new expansion and expects another busy few months heading into the spring.
“Agricultural contracting is very spontaneous work, so you have to broaden your horizons a bit because doing the same kind of work isn’t going to keep you busy 12 months a year,” he said.
“I would sub-contract out some of my work and the digger keeps us fairly busy in the winter time. I do more on site work and we try and keep the men we have busy because they’d be self-employed themselves.”
Along with contracted work, Geoff has a farm of his own to look after – one which he purchased himself, as he explained:
“I’ve five acres of land that I farm here by myself. I’m not from a farming background but I always loved the machinery, so that’s where my interest would have originated and, like I said, my wife looks after the financial end of the business and deals with a lot of the customers.
“I’ve two very good lads working with me here too, which always helps. It is a struggle with the weather at the moment, but we create a good working environment here, with decent hours so as we’re not working late into the night.”
Decent hours were hard to come by this past summer for many farmers given the wet weather, with cutting and baling going during the wee hours.
Geoff and his workers endeavour to work around that when they can, but sometimes conditions make it unavoidable.
However, the most recent addition to the fleet often makes mowing a pleasure, so that the job is carried out to perfection whilst also having some plus side to working late hours.
“I would be particularly pleased with one piece of machinery that we have here. I just got a Krone Big M self-compelled mower this year and I’m very impressed with it. It’s a great machine,” Geoff enthused.
A specialist in versatility, the Krone Big M takes care of all mowing applications and in many ways capsulate what GA Contracts are about given its versatility and efficiency.
Expect plenty more of those qualities to keep coming from Geoff and co as they near closer and closer to the 20-year mark.
GA Contracts
Cullybackey,
Co Antrim
Tel: +44 7771 541869
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 11, December 2015
