Located in Ballinamore, County Leitrim, Wilson Machinery has quickly earned a stellar reputation far and wide for supplying exceptional new and second-hand farm equipment backed up by unbeatable aftersales service. We touched base with owner Richard Wilson to get an update on the steady growth and ever-increasing popularity of the business.
Though only eight years in existence, Wilson Machinery is already firmly established as a fantastic success story. Agri machinery mechanic Richard Wilson set up the business at Kilrush, Ballinamore, adjacent to the dairy farm where he grew up (his father was also a plant hire contractor), and has since built up a vast customer base across counties Leitrim, Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath, Cavan, Meath, Sligo, Monaghan and sometimes even further afield.
Indeed, in the past twelve months alone, tractors and / or machinery has also been sold to customers in Wicklow, Tipperary, Limerick, Donegal and Fermanagh.
The Leitrim man sources and supplies high-quality new and used tractors and machinery and holds agencies for Amazone fertiliser spreaders; Krone mowers, tedders, rakes, forage wagons, balers and harvesters; Conor slurry and muck handling equipment; Quicke front loaders; and Trioliet feeders. While it is the quality and value of the products that initially attracts customers through the door, it is undoubtedly the high level of service offered with every unit sold that keeps them coming back.
As a fully-qualified mechanic (who served his time with renowned importers Farmhand in Dublin), Richard believes in looking after his customers and their machinery. To this end, he oversees a fully-equipped on-site workshop, engineering and light fabrication department (with the ability to manufacture housings, pins and bushings in-house) and carries a large stock of spare parts to make sure no customer is ever stuck when it comes to servicing, repairs, parts or indeed general advice.
“We are expanding our customer base year on year and we’re getting busier all the time,” he confirms. “Our customers have stayed loyal to us and we keep picking up new customers as well, mostly through word of mouth. Sales are increasing steadily each year and we are getting better known not just locally but across neighbouring counties as well. We look after all of our customers as a priority and do our absolute best for them on price and quality and with the levels of service we provide.”
Coming from a farming background himself, Richard understands only too well that with the return on farm produce not rising parallel to the seemingly-exponential increase in the cost of new machinery, many farmers find themselves hard-pressed when it comes to investing in new gear. This is why he goes out of his way to source high-quality, value-added, pre-owned tractors, many of which are brought in from the UK.
Richard states: “It’s quite difficult to source low-hour tractors that are genuine and reasonably priced. However, at the same time the value of a quality second-hand tractor has increased substantially. We currently have 15 quality pre-owned tractors in stock.”
Crucially, farmers or contractors who purchase from Wilson Machinery can do so with complete peace of mind. “We only take in quality equipment, any stock we buy in we buy it because we like it ourselves and we know from looking at it and inspecting it that there’s value in it.
“I have two mechanics employed to work alongside me in the workshop, any second-hand tractor that comes in, is brought through the workshop and given a full service and repair to leave it in first class condition, both mechanically and cosmetically.”
Tractors leave the premises like new and Wilson Machinery can pair them with new grass machinery if required, offering a good deal on the full package.
“We give a standard three-month warranty and register all imported tractors on Irish plates,” Richard continues. “This has become a huge problem since Brexit, with more paperwork associated with importing them from the UK and with getting them registered, but we are handling it. There’s a large pool of stock in the UK which we have access to.”
To expand his service offering, Richard took over a neighbouring business specialising in bearings and belts and power transmission components. He stocks SKF and FAG bearings, PIX belts and supplies a range of power drive chains, sprockets, pulleys and taper-lock bushings to local quarries, meat processing factories and timber processing facilities for use in crushers, screeners, conveyors, handling facilities, etc.
Richard grew up around machinery on the family farm and has had a keen passion for agri equipment all his life. “There is more technology going into the machines all the time and it’s a constant learning curve,” he observes. “You have to keep up to date with those developments and you have to invest accordingly. Right now, I’m looking at investing in diagnostics for JCB material handlers and New Holland tractors. My primary focus is on offering an unrivalled repair service on all the machinery we sell. We’ve also invested in a dynamometer for testing the horsepower and PTOs in tractors and a large-capacity lathe for in-house machining of hydraulic rams and to skim tractor flywheels.”
In keeping with the policy of constantly reinvesting money back into the business to optimise service levels, the office and stores computer systems at Wilson Machinery were upgraded and integrated last year to make them more efficient and user-friendly.
Richard Wilson is always looking for ways to offer his customers a better service but, ultimately, it boils down to hard work, expertise and commitment: “We work six days a week and we have a service van fully kitted out for out-of-hours call-outs,” he concludes. “In this business, you can’t leave a customer stuck. We’re on call 24/7 during the height of the summer and we’d go out day or night to get the grass-based machinery fixed in the field if needs be.”
There are no limits to how far Wilson Machinery will go to look after customers and that explains why this rapidly-growing and continuously-progressing business continues to go from strength to strength.
Wilson Machinery,
Kilrush,
Ballinamore,
County Leitrim.
Tel: 071 9645954
Mobile: 086 0264016
Email: [email protected]
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 1, January/February 2022
