Built to order, backed by family – how the third generation is driving the future of Abbey Machinery

Irish Independent

2 days ago

And while the colour of Abbey equipment is 'definitely orange', according to Clodagh Cavanagh, managing director of the Toomevara-based machinery company, it is happy to cater for colour requests.
'While our predominant colour is orange, there is a push from people who are very particular about the tractors they drive.'
One of the first countries to change the colour was Iceland, where blue is the preferred colour.
'We don't use it as a sales tool, but we find there is a market trend. Lots of big contractors – all their fleet is the same colour.
'There is quite a large customer in south Tipperary and everything is John Deere green. So the tanks, the toppers – are green.
'Our lines are set up for orange, but we're happy to support what the customer wants. We did Maserati blue recently, and we did a Porsche purple-type colour this year.'
The company's second relocation in 2016 from Nenagh to a new 35ac site in Toomevara with a purpose-built factory, which can cater more easily for custom paint jobs and customised machinery. That was four years after Clodagh took over running the business from her father Charles.
'One of the big things for us in Nenagh was that the paint room was too small. We had to come in and paint at the weekends to facilitate the machines. Now there are two painting bays.'
The paint quality may be the first impression the customer gets of a product but managing all a customer's expectations is vital, she says.
Customisation helped Abbey weather the last recession, according to Clodagh, and being able to provide that remains key to the company.
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'When you get into the big contractor piece of kit, they can be very specific on the running gear or a particular piece of kit, and that item might be something we don't carry in stock.
'We have to be very flexible on producing feeders to the customer's requirements. Rather than producing the full basic product, we prefer to offer solutions that best match their enterprise.'
Out of season, Abbey can batch-build products, but in season it has to adapt and manipulate its planning and production schedules while also offering perhaps a door at the back, or some other optional equipment to put in the machine.
'Where we see the biggest variability is around the door arrangement and the height. Depending on what they did previously, their trough height is a big issue.
"In some of the older sheds, it can be hard to manoeuvre, so you might end up where a guy is reversing his feeder in and using a rear door.
'While the feeder is a standard enough piece of kit, the height and door arrangements are what the customer might want specified.
'You'll find the very large or very small customers will have a particular need, and we're flexible on that side of things.
'And it's really important we meet those needs. If we meet their needs or manage expectations correctly, you will win.
'I have a sales team that says everything is possible.'
Clodagh, who is the third generation of the Cavanagh family to run the company, credits much of the company's growth to their team and values.
It's her key piece of advice for anyone in business. 'Get the right people on the bus. Having the right team, whether it's in your company or your dealers, is everything.'
Her grandmother Mary was heavily involved in the business, which was set up by her grandfather John in 1947.
'Growing up there were always meetings around the kitchen table. The Abbey family were an extension of our family.
'My father grew the company significantly and as it grew, it moved away from the kitchen table to a professionally run company. Today, we have a senior leadership team, a management team – our expertise around us is excellent.'
The company has three parts: manufacturing, two retail outlets and spare parts. Clodagh, whose background is in accountancy, spent summers working in the factory alongside her brothers Owen and Cormac.
Clodagh didn't walk into the business with ambitions to become managing director: 'I came to do a project, and the project extended. I grew with the role and the team.'
Running a family company founded in 1947 comes with responsibility. 'It's more rewarding, but also more challenging.
'We made the decision to invest in our people and ourselves when we moved to Toomevara 10 years ago. It was a huge decision, but look what we've achieved.
'We're a family-owned, professionally run business that all comes back to the customer.
'If we understand what the customer needs, we can provide the best solution.
'When we bring customers here, we show them what we're about – our capabilities, our understanding. That gives results. That was backing ourselves and the team.'
According to Francis Merrigan, head of quality and research with Abbey, significant investment by the company was required to match the 6,000-gallon tankers customers were looking for.
Construction on the site, which employs over 100 people, began not long after Dublin Airport's Terminal 2 opened, with locals dubbing it 'Terminal 3' due to its size and scale.
Another 10pc was added to the building, along with solar panels to increase its sustainability.
Abbey currently offers eight product lines with hundreds of options. Slurry handling is the biggest seller, followed by feeding and muck-handling equipment.
The market in Ireland changed in the 1970s and '80s toward liquid slurry systems, prompting demand for tankers over side spreaders; then in the early '90s, Abbey entered the feeder equipment space, and next came vertical tub feeders. And while they offered band spreading technology in the '80s, it didn't take off until 2006/07.
The more recent rise of large-scale farms has shifted the product mix from smaller, single-auger feeders to larger twin-auger machines. 'We're probably selling fewer machines but more high-value products,' Clodagh explains.
In the new premises, a typical order takes 5-7 days from the start of the build, once the parts are in, nearly half of the work is done before the machine is on the floor.
And while the company carries a huge amount of raw material and parts, it can still be a challenge – there can still be lead times for specialist kit but the company has to be agile.
'Every customer wants to improve performance, whether they have 20 cows or 2,000. Nobody wants to see unhealthy animals,' Francis says.
'Efficiencies is what our customers can achieve and we're trying to support that with the size of feeders or the product version. It can give a larger farmer capacity, or a mid-size farmer the capacity to do things really quickly.'
Functionality and performance are essential to product development, according to Clodagh.
'If we're looking at a diet feeder, we have to assess its output. We can't supply something that doesn't offer consistent feed and energy efficiency. If horsepower requirements are too high, we risk excluding a cohort of farmers.'
Exports
60pc of Abbey's sales are now abroad, with the UK remaining its largest export market. And while a move into Australia and New Zealand was riskier, it offered year-round manufacturing opportunities.
'Their seasons are six months apart from ours, so that helped even out workflow. And since they speak English and had European competition, the barriers to entry were level,' says Clodagh.
And while transport costs remain a challenge in some European markets, where large local competitors have a proximity advantage, but Abbey's ability to customise is key.
The new premises allows that and it also allows the company focus on 'containerisation' – making sure the machinery fits into a shipping container.
Getting equipment to fit into a shipping container means significant savings on shipping costs.
"We can fit three large feeders across two containers, and we have trained them to part-assemble. But the cost variation is about 60pc less to go in a container."
To help manage this, the new site has a sunken loading bay which replicates the size of a shipping container.
"It has opened up a lot for us. When we are exporting, we're talking to customers about roll-on, roll-off, or if it will go in a shipping container."
And while local manufacturers may have a cost advantage other markets, 'for now, it's important that we stay close to what we're doing in the community,' she says.
'Quality, durability, and our ability to support customers are so important to the company mean every new product must be assessed for its impact on sustainability, efficiency, and what it can offer the customer.'
Looking out the window at the company's testing ground in the adjoining field, she says that given the different climates we have and the different topography, anything that's tested in Ireland is good for 90pc of the world.
'And for the areas that we have to look at drier material, we bring that in and we test it here.
'Our view is, if it's tried and tested in Ireland, it will generally work anywhere.'
Last year was 'extremely challenging' for the company.
"We wrote the most fabulous business plan five years ago. It was beautiful. But life happens when you're making plans and we had Brexit, Covid and the uncertainty with wars,' Clodagh says.
'For a long time there was a 12-month wait for steel. Then all of a sudden, the supply chain caught up with themselves and every dealers yard across the world had a huge stock of tractors, which impacted their availability to take our product in. It was like someone hit the brakes.
'So we have to focus on what we have within our control and drive on and make sure that we're as efficient as possible and as innovative as possible.'
And into the future, labour shortages and a gap in the skills market are Abbey's main concerns for the next 5-10 years.
'The height of the labour challenge came about three months into Covid – the government supports were so good and we could not get staff.'
To address this the company has been involved with Enterprise Ireland and its apprenticeship programmes.
'Before Covid you could have sold Tipperary, the lifestyle and flexibility, but the labour market has changed and for us it's to encourage people to show them the skill set that we upscale, that we support the staff for training and different opportunities given the global footprint we have now.'
And while Enterprise Ireland has been supportive, Ireland isn't necessarily an easy place to manufacture, she says.
'I think the government have a strategy here to support businesses, but it's not without its challenges, and there's been a lot of costs put on to companies and we need to ensure that we don't become uncompetitive.
"Because Ireland is a small country and we're surrounded by water the only way for our companies to grow is to expand overseas, and for that, we need to be as competitive as possible.'
She compares the agricultural equipment sector in Ireland to the car industry in Germany, name-checking the likes of Dairymaster, McHale, Pearsons and Combilift.
And those in the sector are very good to each other, with Abbey getting great advice from others when it came to looking at new markets and technology.
'We've been at shows in Germany where other companies would help us with the stand set-up or moved a piece of kit for us. I think we have a really good community and network of companies within the sector.
'When we're looking at different markets and thinking of going to a show, you pick up the phone and ask those who have been how did they find it, what was the benefit of it.
'And Enterprise Ireland have people in the markets who can help with market research, or if there is a language or cultural barrier their help is really important.'
That network of Irish manufacturing companies has also allowed Abbey to learn, while they too have opened their doors to other Irish companies to see how they do things.
'You can learn from other people's mistakes, people have learnt from ours. But we try to make sure we have the right product that gives a return on investment to our end user.
"All equipment has gone extremely expensive, as has the cost of doing business, so we're trying to make sure we're saving labour, that we're reducing costs on farms, that we're increasing the milk yield – that's what it comes down to, profitability for the end user.'