Being one of the market leaders in rubber mats for slatted sheds, Mike Earls, the managing director of the EasyFix Galway-based company, says their progression in business has always been based on providing ‘an excellent product’, as well as ‘hard work’. However, their entry into the Canadian market met with a degree of good fortune.

The company was established in 1996 and has grown to be the market leader in Ireland. With a staff of 20, sales this year are expected to hit €2.5 million. The company exports to 20 countries across the globe from its headquarters in Ballinasloe.

Its expansion into the Canadian market came about organically from what Earls described as ‘an opportune meeting’. “We were at a trade show in Europe about eight or nine years ago,” Earls said. “A major feedlot farmer from Canada, Ben Gardiner, came onto the stand and began to look around. He asked a lot of questions about the design of the rubber mats, how they worked and about people’s reactions to them.”

However, despite strong praise for his products and a handshake, Earls received nothing else on that day. A few months passed before Gardiner got in touch again. He travelled with son and wife to Galway to place a substantial order for two container loads of mats for his feedlot in Ontario.

Gardiner said that rubber mats were almost unheard of in Canada at that time and that farmers were spending a large amount of money on straw bedding. At the same time the EPA in Canada were tightening their controls on farm operations and this led to a need for more slatted houses and also rubber mats.

Earls explained that many Canadian farmers were setting up feedlots nearer to areas of grain production at that time as a way of cutting down on transport costs. Huge sheds were built and there was a need for good quality mats.

Distributor offer

The following year, 2007, Ben returned to the EasyFix base in Ballinasloe with his other son, Aaron, an accountant in Canada. The pair approached Earls to become the EasyFix distributor for Canada and North America.

“I didn’t want to be part of a get rich quick scheme,” Earls said. “I wanted to ensure that any decision we made was right for the business so we took our time. Eventually we decided that this market was for us and Aaron was put in place as the head of the franchise in Canada.

“While we were fortunate to make this acquaintance, we also had a great product. Everything we do is based on our product. Our mats have helped reduce lameness in herds over there. Before our mats were fitted, lameness in cattle herds was at about 7% in Canada – it’s now at 0.05% wherever EasyFix is used.”

Overall, the move into Canada has been a success for EasyFix. It is one of the very few companies exporting from Ireland into Canada. Almost half a million cattle walk or lie on EasyFix mats everyday in the region.

Easy route to market

The decision by Ben and Aaron Gardiner to approach Mike and EasyFix eliminated many of the normal ‘route to market’ issues. Irish companies like EasyFix often require major financial backing from the likes of Enterprise Ireland in order to access other markets. The fact that the Gardiners were proactively looking to establish a franchise helped eliminate this need.

Normally native third party sales agents as used to achieve sales in export markets. These provide local market knowledge before trading begins. EasyFix has also used sales agents in different countries as a route to market.

While this EasyFix story is unusual, the need for local knowledge, be in through agents or franchisees, is imperative to get an Irish product into a foreign market, according to Earls.