Swaine Agri is embedded into the local community on the back of consistently delivering unrivalled levels of aftersales service to the farming community down through the decades. We travelled to the beating heart of midlands and touched base with Liam Swaine to get an update on this exceptional industry-leading machinery sales and service specialist.
Proven experts in the sale and service of tractors and all other types of agricultural machinery, Swaine Agri has become part of everyday farming life across the midlands and beyond for more than three decades and counting. The legacy of this outstanding family-run machinery business is an uncanny track record of looking after customers’ needs.
By leaving no stone unturned in promptly and professionally keeping customers’ wheels moving and engines firing on all cylinders, the Swaine name has become synonymous with dependability and their reputation for reliability precedes them. And there’s not going to be any let-up, either: no sooner did the Rhode, County Offaly headquartered agri machinery experts take on the prestigious Valtra dealership covering Offaly, Kildare, Laois and into North Tipperary than they were named Valtra Dealer of the Year!
Clearly, service and aftersales continue to rate very highly on Swaine Agri’s list of priorities… “We’d be known for service and that’s where the business started,” comments hands-on owner Liam Swaine, the driving force behind Swaine Agri. “We started off doing repairs and then moved into selling second-hand. We then became a main dealer and the business kept growing.
“Service was at the heart of it from the beginning and we progressed on the back of that. That’s always been our philosophy and it stands to us – hopefully it will continue to do so. We’ve kept providing the same level of service since taking Valtra on board in 2020 and that’s one of the reasons we were named Valtra Dealer of the Year last year.”
The business has been going from strength to strength since joining forces with the famous Finnish tractor brand. “They’re going very well and we’re getting very good feedback on them,” Liam confirms. “We have a lot of them out and farmers and contractors are happy with them. It’s a good product in fairness and we back in up by giving a good aftercare service. Lads are happy with them and both customers and Valtra themselves have confidence in us, which is reassuring.”
Swine Agri’s modern workshop and experienced technicians pride themselves on delivering excellent machinery, preventative maintenance and repair services, be that in the garage itself or out in the field. “We’re not exactly run off our feet looking after the Valtras as they really only need general day-to-day servicing,” says Liam. “We’ve a lot of them out and they’ve put up long hours in a short space of time without any major issues.
“Valtra is a strong, growing product for us, but still only relatively new to the area. There are still a lot of people to convert so it’s very much a work in progress. But it’s a case of so far, so good and I’m confident that once lads see that it’s a very good product backed up by a strong level of service, then the brand will continue to grow here in the midlands.”
Having cut its teeth as a reputable independent dealer, Swaine Agri has taken on a number of high-profile dealerships in recent years – another sign of the high regard in which the business is held by machinery manufacturers and operators alike.
“We partnered up with Kverneland after Christmas and are doing the full range of tillage equipment and grass equipment. We were with Krone and Amazone before but Kverneland had been approaching us for a long time and we decided that the time was right to change. We have McConnel hedge cutters as well and the full range of Abbey slurry equipment – tankers, agitators, diet feeders, etc.”
Alas, prevailing market and weather conditions dictated that 2024 has not been a bumper year for new machinery sales. “It’s been a poor year for machinery sales but we are happy with where we are,” Liam notes. “This year we’ve had the perfect storm for slow sales and the weather has been a big hindrance to everybody. Dairy men have had to keep feeding cattle when they wouldn’t normally be still feeding them and as a result the disposal income isn’t there to put into machinery.
“But it comes and goes and you will always have good years and bad years. This is nothing new. Farmers need good machinery and it always turns around. It will come again.”
The Swaine Agri team comprises nine personnel in total, five of whom are based in the workshop. “You can do nothing without a good team around you and I have great people here, in fairness,” Liam continues. “We place a big emphasis on aftersales training and upskilling and this includes flying our technicians to the UK to keep up to date with Valtra and our apprentices are doing their apprenticeships through AGCO, which means they are trained in the equipment we are selling.
“They are receiving brand-specific training and that’s a choice we made as a company with regards to what we want to focus on. With modern equipment, you have to know your product inside-out to keep the wheels moving for farmers and contractors.”
Looking to the future, Liam promises that Swaine Agri will remain firmly focused on doing what they do best: “The key is service and that’s where the future of any machinery business lies,” he concludes. “You have to have back-up service and customer support in place before selling any machine. It’s easy enough to sell the first one, but you won’t sell the second one unless the service is there.”
Swaine Agri,
The Grove,
Ballyheashill,
Rhode,
County Offaly.
Tel: 046 9737000
Mobile: 086 3481100
Email: [email protected]
Web: swaineagri.ie
Facebook: www.facebook.com/swaineagri
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 12 No 3, September/October 2024
