This instalment of our Made in Ireland series brings us to the southwest of the country. Located just outside the town of Kilmallock in Co Limerick, Keltec Engineering has accumulated more than 30 years of experience manufacturing machinery for the agricultural sector and now employs over 30 staff. We sat down with managing director Thomas Sheedy to find out more about the firm.

Background

After leaving school, Thomas went to work with a local engineering firm. From a young age, he was involved in the day-to-day running of the home farm and was always doing some fabricating on the side in a hay shed on the farm.

Suddenly, his father fell ill and Thomas was forced to return home to milk cows on a full-time basis. While running the farm, his fabricating business on the side was becoming busier and busier. The business consisted mainly of repairs. However, there was rapid growth in its work making gates and trailers.

It takes 250 man hours to build a 10-pack bale chaser.

Thomas explained: “The fabricating business grew rapidly. Meanwhile, things on the farm were also busy. It got to the stage that I had to focus on one or the other. Typically, guys are very good at looking after animals or the upkeep of machinery. It’s not too often you get a guy that can do the two to a very high standard. I felt that I was better at the fabrication side so I decided to go down that route. From here, I bought a local premises and went from there.”

Products

“Our first products were silage trailers, slurry pumps and shear grabs. The first product that we patented was the bale slice. Numbers wise, this is still our best seller today. I think it’s the best on the market because of the steel and engineering in it. Our focus is on trying to take the hardship out of handling bales.

“The bale chaser is a popular product, but it’s a hard sell. Many contractors don’t want to entertain the idea of drawing bales. We have been building this product for the past 30 years. About 15 years ago, we stopped producing these machines for two years as demand dropped. However, customers asked us to build them again and today it’s a very popular product for us. It takes in the region of 250 man hours to build a bale chaser. At peak production, we can build four of these chasers per week. To date, we’ve built over 1,000 units.

A mower nearing the end of the manufacturing process.

“The mowers are our latest product. We’ve been developing them for the past seven to eight years and this year will be the first time the three mowers have been available to the market. We have three offerings – the front mower, side-mounted and butterfly unit.”

Thomas noted: “Ireland remains our most important market. Our dealer network is relatively small. We have 26 Irish dealers in total. We export to a lot of countries, and are continuously working to increase our market share. There is a company in Canada that builds our bale slices under licence. They look after sales and distribution in the US too.”

Today, Keltec has machines working in 21 countries worldwide including Australia, New Zealand and Russia. Outside of Ireland, Thomas noted that Norway and Sweden are two very important countries for the firm.

Opportunities/threats

“Pre-orders for 2020 are up on 2019. Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in sales of our bale slice and bale chasers. This is down to the fact that farmers want to improve efficiency as labour becomes more and more limited on farms and for contractors.

“The UK is an important market for us. Brexit is a concern, but the coronavirus is worse. We’re really entering the unknown. I’ve spoken to our component manufacturers in the past few days and they are confident that supply won’t be affected.

“The margins for our customers are very tight. Over the years, the cost of all inputs have gone up, while the price the farmer receives for his end produce hasn’t changed.

“There’s only so much guys can do to improve efficiency inside their gate. This is the biggest threat to our business.”

Profile

  • Business: Keltec Engineering.
  • Established: 1988.
  • Managing director: Thomas Sheedy.
  • No of employees: 30.
  • Address: Kilmallock, Co Limerick.
  • Export markets: 21.