Nestled among the drumlin hills of rural Tyrone is a state-of-the-art workshop with saws, planers, and all the machines necessary to construct farm yards, milking parlours, you can even order a mart if you want to.

Millwood Farm Sets.

There’s one big difference. All construction is at the scale of 1:32. Benny and John have tapped into the toy market and the business as going from strength to strength.

“We have three full time staff here and this is the busiest time of the year,” John said. The business began in 2005, when the pair were still working as diesel mechanics.

“One of our children asked for a toy farm for Christmas. We looked hard but couldn’t find one we were happy with, so we decided to make one ourselves modelled on the farm yard out the back,” he added. Unbeknownst to the two brothers, this was the start of a thriving business, Millwood Crafts. The company began making farm sets in 2008. The brothers spent the first six to seven years doing 70-80 agricultural shows a year, displaying their products and taking orders for Christmas. “We concentrated on the Irish market at the start, but we have been moving more and more stuff over to the UK. We have even shipped a farmyard to Canada this year. We now have 60-70 shops stocking our products and we have reduced the amount of direct selling from the factory here in Tyrone and have concentrated on our stockists.” said Benny.

Millwood Craft Toys, Tyrone

Safety and feedback

The company has evolved over the years and is constantly adding new products like farm machinery or add-on materials like round feeders and bales, but have stuck with agricultural themes in everything they do. “We get everything quality inspected to adhere to safety standards and there is a massive cost in this. We got some gates tested the other day and it cost us £1,780 to go through the process. We have very small children playing with our products, so we have to be able to stand by them.”

The factory floor is like a car manufacturing facility, with thousands of component parts made and assembled together to make the farm sets. The brothers are always looking to explore new products and ideas, and they say they get great feedback from the children that play with their toys. “Children are our greatest critic and you have to listen to them. They can be very honest at times, sometimes too honest, but it’s great to hear it back.”

Prices for Millwood products range from €15 for the smaller machinery attachments to €160 for some of the larger farmyards. Most of the farmyards can be joined together to make a bigger farmyard.