When you talk of bundles or a bundle offering, the first thing that springs to mind for most people is a sports and entertainment package with Sky TV or the latest deal from a phone and internet provider. However, for one Irish machinery company, the bundled sale has always been at the core of how it does business with farmer customers.

According to Matt Higgins, general manager of Carlow-based machinery manufacturer Keenan, the company has never just sold a steel machine to farmers. Instead, the company has sought to bundle services and nutrition advice with each sale.

The Keenan diet feeder.

“Keenan has always been a concept sale. This goes right back to the 1980s when we developed the first Easi-Feeder machine, which was the first of its kind in Europe,” says Higgins. “We began offering nutrition support and advice to farmers alongside this machine. So it was very much a bundled product from the very early days and this has continued right through to our InTouch technology today,” he adds.

Keenan mixer wagon.

In April 2016, the Keenan business was purchased by Alltech, the animal nutrition company privately owned by the Lyons family. Alltech’s acquisition of the business made sense as it brought a new level to the bundled offering that Keenan could sell to its customers.

According to Robbie Walker, chief executive of Keenan, there are four stages to the evolution of the Keenan business model.

Keenan Alltech CEO Robert Walker.

“The first stage for Keenan was during the 1980s when the company sold an extremely well-engineered machine that farmers could rely on. The second stage for the company came in the 1990s when Keenan began selling good nutritional advice alongside the machines,” says Walker.

“The third stage was combining the machine and the nutritional advice with digital technology. This gave the business much more control and improved our ability to offer advice to the farmer. Finally, the fourth stage for Keenan has been the acquisition by Alltech, which allowed us to combine the machine, the nutritional advice and the digital technology with actual nutrition from Alltech,” he adds.

Looking at the wider industry, Walker says you can already see that Irish manufacturers are having to evolve their business model to offer customers a bundle of services alongside the physical machine.

“True innovation in a company is also about innovating your business model, which for Keenan is about combining the machine to digital and nutrition. That’s where I believe the future of Irish manufacturing is going. Irish manufacturers are going to need to bundle services along with their product in the future,” says Walker.