For 26 years, when heading in or out of Bellanaleck on the Derrylin side, McCullagh Machinery has dominated the road frontage on the periphery of the village.

In the yard, machinery was being moved or inspected by staff when we arrived. Owner Lloyd McCullagh was in his happy place, working the forklift around the yard before sitting down to chat.

Mr. McCullagh admitted that he would be very involved in the day-to-day workings at the business, constantly in the yard or workshops, speaking to staff about the next step for the machinery being worked on.

Selling farm and construction machinery, the business began in the smaller surrounds of the family farm before moving to its current premises.

From its humble beginnings, McCullagh Machinery has grown from a staff of three to up to 20 people, selling products all around Ireland and in the mainland UK.

“My dad, always in a small manner, dealt in farm machinery. And in the early 90s, we tried to make it more of a business,” explained Mr. McCullagh.

“Throughout that period, we worked from our home farm, which is two miles away from here, and that grew in its own right.

“But I always wanted to get to maybe a village or a town or a main road area for road frontage, and try and build purpose-built premises.

“So we acquired this site in 1996, built the premises then from that, and we moved into them in September, 1997.

“At that stage, we had three staff members. Life has gone on, and we’re here now for 26 years. We now employ up to 20 staff.”

Extensions and developments have taken place over the years since at the site. The land around the premises was acquired around a decade ago to put up more buildings to accommodate customers and products as the business grew.

And it has certainly grown, with Mr. McCullagh explaining the business model they have in place to bring the best product to the customer.

“Our business model in the second-hand market is to buy real quality second-hand equipment.

“Yet when it comes here, we bring it on up to a standard that I haven’t seen anywhere else. And we can only do that with the level of staff that we have, and proper staff.

“So we bring everything up to a premium standard, and everything is sold with a full warranty,” he added.

Mr. McCullagh continued: “In the new machinery market over the years, we have acquired different brands.

“Four years ago, we were approached by Pottinger [an Austrian-owned agricultural technology brand] to see if we would be one of their main stockists for their equipment.

“Pottinger would be classed as probably one of your highest-premium names in the market.

“So we have seen huge levels of turnover with that product – way more than ever I expected,” he added.

Further elaborating on changes down the years, Mr. McCullagh continued: “Our turnover has grown from being very, very small, to around £6million a year.”

He revealed that local Fermanagh business has also grown in recent years: “In the last 10 to 15 years, people have started to learn what we were doing, and the type of equipment and the service backup that we give.

“Service backup to customers is our highest priority. It’s immense, the value we put on that.”

Mr. McCullagh admitted that his business and the agricultural industry are not immune to contemporary pressures when it comes to sales.

The weather, for one thing, can have a huge bearing on the business, which is expecting lower sales this year compared to 2022’s figures.

However, this does not stop Mr. McCullagh and his staff from ensuring that whatever they sell is of premium quality.

Indeed, the highest of standards are required for staff to ensure that anything McCullagh’s sells reaches that top-tier threshold.

“There’s a system here that, for everything that goes through, nothing is photographed for sale for advertisements until it’s absolutely to the standard that I want it to be,” added Mr. McCullagh.

With up to 50 items of machinery, ranging from between £5,000 and £95,000 a month being sold, the challenge is continually there to maintain those standards.

As well as the big-ticket machinery, McCullagh Machinery has other areas that have seen growth.

“We have seen our spare parts business grow immensely. Our store now has three full-time staff.

“Recently, Joe McBrien – who is a well-known name in the hydraulic hose industry, and has been involved in the parts and hydraulic hose industry for 28 years – moved to us this year.

“So, on the back of that, we intend to very much grow our hydraulic hose industry business, and we have created new facilities to facilitate that.”

The service part of the business is also hugely important for McCullagh’s. Mr. McCullagh explained: “We have service vans on the road, we have service fitters. If the customer has a problem, we go straight to him.”

The importance of this can be seen especially in summer when farmers and contractors are working to a tight schedule and need urgent assistance.

And this is something that McCullagh’s have built a reputation on.

But with this reputation comes the expectation and challenge to maintain the high standards.

Mr. McCullagh said: “When you want to comply with the standard that we have here, that, in itself, brings huge challenges.

“We must at all times keep this standard. So with that, there are problems that have to be sorted to continually keep that standard.

“I never get out of my bed any more [without knowing] I’m facing a challenge of some description.

“But look, we must get used to it, and you work on that. There’s no simple way of getting from Monday to Saturday evening.”

There is an honesty to work being done, and this is something Mr. McCullagh prides the company on.

“There’s a huge onus on honesty here. The bottom line is people won’t be long finding out the opposite.

“So that’s another motto we have. Everything is described as a total, honest description to the best of our ability.”

This builds a trusted reputation, and customers know what they are getting, he added.

With this focus on quality and honesty, many customers from as far away as Cork, Kerry, Galway and Mayo do not even visit the yard.

They simply see what they want on the website, and have it delivered.

Another example is how a customer in Wales chose to buy a common make of digger from McCullagh’s, even though there were likely to be closer dealers, just because he had bought diggers there before and trusted the business.

When asked what the future holds, upholding standards is a big part of it, said Mr. McCullagh.

“If we continually improve the business every year, we want to do things to make the business more and more efficient.

“But as I do tell all of the public, we are at a place where we have the machines at the highest possible standard that anybody can ever bring them on, and they’re sold with a full warranty.

“So, we are not going to improve on that. That starts at our peak, and if we can stick at what we’ve been doing for the last number of years, I’d be very happy about that,” he added.