There’s no question that Liam Trench Agri Contractors has established itself as a leading contracting company since its inception way back. Irish Tractor spoke to Liam Trench himself to tell us about business based the Ballindoyne-based business.
When a family-run business moves into its third generation you know that something is being done right. That certainly seems to be the case with Liam Trench Agricultural Contractors in Co Mayo, as the company continues to prosper into 2015.
Liam Trench has been involved in the agricultural industry his whole life and comes from a rich background when it comes to the industry, with his father Joe having run the company after his own father had founded it two generations ago.
Since then things have flourished to the point where Liam is now bringing in part-time staff to keep up with the busy demand which the summer season brings. This summer, in particular, was a busy one for Liam Trench and his employees.
“We’re based in Garryduff, Claremorris in Co Mayo,” explained Liam.
“I’m third generation in this company and we’ve four full-time and seven part-time during the summer. My brother Bernard also works here and my father Joe was the owner before I took on the business. We’d also have been known as Joe Trench and Sons.”
Trench Agri Contractors’ areas of expertise include many of the industry’s typical aspects but they also offer a plant hire service for their customers as well. While Liam admits that the downturn certainly affected that end of the business, he is glad to see things starting to turn around.
As a sole trader, Liam offers his customers the works when it comes to agricultural contracting, as he explained himself: “We do pit silage, we do bales, we do re-seeding, muck spreading, plant hire, diggers, slurry and lime spreading.”
“Business is alright at the minute for us,” he continued. “The downturn might have affected the plant hire end of things more than anything else but this year was a good year because we had a very good summer. Actually the last two years have been decent years for us so we can’t complain.”
The company’s fleet is largely made up of Valtra and John Deere machinery and is put fully to the test in the summer time when things are at their busiest for Liam and his employees.
Clarke Bros in Ballindoyne is Trench Agri Contractors’ Valtra supplier and McHales supply the Fendt.
“We have six Valtra tractors, two John Deere tractors, two Fendt tractors, one Volvo loader, Hitatchi diggers, a Claas harvester and a fleet of trailers and tankers. We’ve Kuernelaned mowes and Kron mowers.”
McHale is another trusted brand of the Trenchs, with Liam having bought his first Fusion in 11 years ago. After finding himself very impressed with the machinery, Liam bought a Fusion 2 in 2007 and hasn’t looked elsewhere when it comes to baler and wrapper specialists.
“We currently have a Fusion 2 Plus with plastic or barrel wrap as it’s known. Once our customers get the barrel wrap once, they always want it again.”
You can be sure that Liam will be putting them to work again this summer when baling season comes around again. For now, the next few months are set to keep him and his employees busy as they build up to what he hopes will be another extended summer.
Liam is always between contracting, plant hire and farming: “We offer bulldozers and site clearance while in farming it’s calf to beef, and that certainly keeps us going.
“We’ll just be hoping to stay busy and have another good summer (in 2015). Hopefully we can continue to grow the business as well and continue to gain more customers,” Liam concluded.
Liam Trench Agri Contractors
Garryduff
Claremorris
Co Mayo
m. 087 260 3567
t. 094 936 4061
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 2, March 2015
