Autumn will be a “season of change” for one agricultural mechanic and machinery dealer – who is set to move premises from his home yard and workshop of Bawnlea in Co. Tipperary, to the nearby town of Urlingford, across the Kilkenny border.
Neville Cooke, owner of Cooke Agri, aims to move into his new garage this October, due to the growth of his company since starting out as an independent business 11 years ago.
Speaking to Agriland, Neville explained the progress of his enterprise, saying:
“I went out working on my own back in 2010 and started out initially just working by myself, doing repairs, servicing tractors and that end of things.
“At that time it would have been focusing a lot on Deutz and Lamborghini tractors; I’m still doing a good bit on them but maybe not quite as much – it could be anything now: New Holland; John Deere; or Massey Ferguson, and a bit of plant as well.
“Before too long, after going out on my own I needed help so I had to take on a worker; we’ve two mechanics with myself at the minute and someone in the office one day a week.
“We probably will need more staff when we go into Urlingford as well,” he added.
In terms of reasons for moving, Neville outlined: “We were getting tight for space where we are and there were a couple of reasons for moving.”
These he explained were, to begin with, that his current yard is “off the beaten track” for customers – though this hadn’t been affecting the repairs side of things – also he said:
“There are opportunities in Urlingford in the new place for developing a good store for tractor parts and that kind of thing.”
Turning to his machinery dealership and parts business, and what it supplies, Neville noted that he is an agent for Sonarol implements, Klesberg and JM Agri Design bale handlers.
Of the latter, he said: “We’ve been selling them for the last couple of years and the Sonarol for the last three or four years. That tips along grand; it does its own thing in ways.”
A few years ago he also started importing tractors from the UK, looking out for solid machines across the water. However, mainly because of Brexit, he has not imported any tractors from England this year, instead sourcing Irish tractors and one or two from Northern Ireland.
However, it’s in tractor parts that things have really progressed, with the mechanic saying: “In the last year or two we started dealing with some of the suppliers supplying aftermarket parts like QTP, Bepco and Sparex – and a few others as well.
“We have access to dealing directly with them now so from that point of view that’s something that could be developed a bit more and there’s probably room for increasing that side of the business,” he explained.
“I find, even when we started doing that for ourselves for the workshop, it suddenly brought back the control a little bit to me in that we were more in control of what we were ordering, the timeframe of ordering and that sort of thing.
“You’d be trying to keep the timeframe of fixing things – it’s not always possible – but trying to keep it as tight as possible to get the tractor in, get it sorted and out again.”
With his Urlingford premises nearing completion, a few interior jobs are left to sort out – then it’ll be time to kit out the store, office and workshop. With an October move date earmarked, progress is going along steadily.
Looking to the future, when asked about the possibility of taking on a tractor dealership, Neville said he is keeping an open mind – but wants to take things one step at a time, with all focus currently on the new premises.
“Maybe some time,” he said. “We’re in a better location where we could have that option but there’s nothing done on that line.
“I’d be keeping my eyes open for something maybe but I’m not hugely panicked yet though. We want to get in and get established – we’re not in a mad rush either to take on something like that because it’s a different ball game.”