Located just outside Omagh, Co Tyrone, is Herbst Machinery. Now in the trade 38 years, the firm was established by current managing director Noel Good.

Today, Herbst remains very much a team-oriented business.

Noel and Ian Good.

Background

“I had always been interested in fabricating. My first project was in 1974, it was a trailer I built for my dad when I was 19,” said Noel.

Until the early 1980s, Noel had been working as a service manager for a northern Irish rough-terrain forklift manufacturer before deciding to start up his own engineering business, a long-term goal.

Starting from humble beginnings, Noel first began working from his car garage, with the first product being a hydraulic power box.

Herbst 16t dump loader.

Noel was then quickly offered an agency to build machines under the Herbst brand having previously met Wicklow-based man Michael Herbst of Herbst Group, a German-born entrepreneur who had been farming in Kildare and owned a range of businesses from software to equipment manufacturing.

Herbst at the time was in association with Roscommon-based Ballintubber Enterprises, building vegetable machines and the popular Herbst Difco Turfcutter.

The turfcutter was developed for Irish conditions in response to the announcement of the Bord na Mona grant scheme for the development of privately owned bogs.

In the years that followed its May 1981 launch, there was huge demand for the Herbst Difco machine both at home and abroad, having arguably revolutionised turf-cutting here in Ireland.

Michael Herbst then offered Noel the brand name, which had become widely known.

Having found his footing manufacturing turf machines, Noel then moved to a larger premises in 1984 and ventured into the trailer market.

In 1985, still closely linked to bog machinery, Noel designed his first track conversion kits for conventional tractors working on the bogs.

One of the new HAC 900 Agri Crushers in action.

The next big break for Herbst Machinery was in 1986 when a shear grab was added to the range. A shear grab was a relatively new concept in the country at the time for feeding silage.

“I remember holding shear grab demonstrations on farms. Farmers then were amazed by the clean pit face left behind. At peak, we were building up to 350 shear grabs per year.”

A tandem-axle 19t low loader waiting to enter the paint shop.

Not everything was plain sailing, however: “Foot-and-mouth disease then hit in 2001, we had over 40 orders cancelled over the space of a few days which left us with a number of grabs to try and sell.

“Focus was then turned to manufacturing agricultural trailers.

“The first dump trailer we built was sold at a loss just to get a unit out there into the market. It was sold to a Fermanagh man and just days later we had our second dump trailer sold to his neighbour. That said, from then on trailers were sold at a profit,” Noel said.

All steel is sand-blasted before fabrication for a cleaner finish.

Since moving into the current site in 1988, Herbst Machinery has expanded four times and has steadily employed more staff through the years to keep up with customer demand.

Products

Today, the product range is mainly divided between trailers, screeners and crushers. The latter two are particular areas in which the company has grown steadily since 2005, but in more recent times has experienced an influx.

The ban on turf-cutting more or less finished production of such machinery and so Herbst diversified into the area of recycling machinery (screeners and crushers).

“Our range now suits very well in that it isn’t overly seasonal, therefore workload is steady year round unlike grass machinery where you have a particularly busy period in the runup to silage season.”

A stone cart being prepared for priming and painting.

Noel explained: “Crushers and screeners always interested me. I always wanted to build my own. In 2005, we built the first screener; it was a tracked screener.

“The first crusher then came about in 2009. We found a niche in the market especially with the Agri Crusher in 2014.”

In 2019, the firm won the Lamma show innovation award for its Compac Screener.

Fast forward to the present and with over 150 crushers alone out working, Herbst now offers a wide range of screeners and crushers and last year saw the launch of its HAC range (HAC 700 and HAC 900). This is the next step up from the standard Agri Crusher with automatic sensor-controlled infeed.

An S52 tracked screener mid-assembly.

The majority of these screeners and crushers are destined for the recycling and small quarry industries alongside agricultural contractors who are looking to diversify their businesses by providing a crushing service to their farmer clients.

The unique advantage of Herbst’s screeners and crushers is their simplicity, according to Noel.

Trailers remain the bread and butter offering for Herbst – dump trailers, bale trailers and low loaders in particular, with roughly three completed trailers rolling out of assembly every day.

A tri-axle low loader ready for delivery.

Markets

Noel said: “Currently, Ireland and the UK accounts for the 60% of our sales, with the remainder being exports to countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada as well as European and Scandinavian markets to name a few.

A range of dumpers and low loaders ready for dispatch.

“We’ve been exporting products since the beginning with the turf machines. A large number of machines were exported to places like Burndi in Africa. With the current demand and lead time between four and six months, we are happy with the number of markets we are in. We want to look after what we have before breaking into any others.”

Opportunities/threats

“Agriculture has changed hugely since we started out. For example, over our 38 years in business the tides have turned from farmers being incentivised to drain land and bogs to now doing the opposite.

“Machinery too has got bigger and more specialised. A successful business needs to be ahead of the curve.

A Compac Screen in action.

“This was partly our reason for diversifying into the recycling markets years ago. It’s an area we see good potential growth in and a direction we will remain headed in for the future,” Noel explained.

“Steel prices have risen significantly in the past year as everyone very well knows, availability being another issue.

But it’s not just steel that’s an issue, it is the availability of other components

“We went from carrying one month’s stock of steel to between four and six months’ worth of stock which has meant we can secure both supply and the best price for our customers.

“But it’s not just steel that’s an issue, it is the availability of other components right down to the likes of wire for the MIG welders.”

“Although prices of machinery as result have increased, farmers and contractors have been understanding and remain very active in buying. Some of this positivity can be put down to good prices currently being paid to farmers for their produce.”

Green energy

In 2017, Herbst showed its forward thinking as a company when it installed a 250kW wind turbine, which now produces almost all of the factory’s energy renewably.

The paint preparation process was upgraded around the same time so that it too would benefit from the installation of the turbine.

Similar to an immersion heater in a house, the power created is used to heat up to 130,000l of water. A system similar to a vehicle’s cooling system only in reverse is used to heat the paint shop. Hot water passes through radiator-like heaters fitted with a large fan which disperses the heat. Water is heated anywhere up to 85°C.

Noel noted how this has been serious benefit to the business, with a substantial saving made annually in terms of electricity costs as well as in terms of heating oil if oil burners were still to be used in the painting process.

Profile

  • Business: Herbst Machinery.
  • Established: 1983.
  • Managing director: Noel Good.
  • Export markets: 12.
  • Employees: 30
  • Address: Omagh, Co Tyrone.