Published by Farmers Guide, April 2009

Port Agric is poised to oust its competitors

Colin Port (Left) and Julian Ripper are the public faces of Port Agric in the West and East of England respectively.

COLIN Port, the managing director of Hailsham-based Port Agric Ltd, has just one aim for 2009, and that’s to make sure than as many people as possible know about the company that carries his name.
Having spent the past few years fine tuning the firm’s offering, by adding a range of hedge and verge cutters and flail mowers, Mr Port is now embarking on a marketing campaign to let farmers know exactly what Port Agric can do for them.
“This company has come a long way since I started the business 18 years ago in a cowshed with a big hammer, a stick welder and a pot of paint,” Mr Port said. “Now it’s time to raise our profile and show people exactly what we do.
“We have the most extensive product range in the grasscare sector and it’s time to raise awareness in the Port Agric brand.”
When Mr Port started the company he was an agricultural contractor who had decided to make his own equipment because no one was selling what he wanted.
“I was looking for a heavy duty topper, but there was nothing on the market that fitted the bill,” he said. “Instead I built my own twin-rotor machine with shaft drive.”
While shaft drive is now a proven concept, back then Mr Port’s topper was unique, but it delivered the benefits he wanted.
“At the time you could only buy machines with belt drive that would slip if you got into difficult working conditions,” he said. “Shaft drive meant that was no longer an issue, so work rates improved, and it also meant that the rotors could contra rotate to spread the cuttings and leave a better finish.”
Not surprisingly, the new topper proved a success with Mr Port’s contracting customers, with many of them wanting one of their own. Consequently, the cowshed workshop became considerably busier and the focus of the business turned from contracting to engineering.
The Port Agric business took its next step forward six years later, in 1997, when it moved to premises at Hailsham.
“I had been looking for larger premises and had also been looking into buying time on a laser cutter to improve our manufacturing processes,” Mr Port said. “Then I happened to see an advertisement in a local paper where a Hailsham-based businessman was offering exactly that.”
That businessman was Bob Nicholls, and he and Colin Port immediately hit it off.
“Our two businesses were a perfect fit and we quickly reached an arrangement where Port Agric was incorporated, with Bob and I and our wives becoming directors, and the business moving into his East Sussex premises,” Mr Port said. “It might seem an odd match, but the Port Agric agricultural machinery business just fitted in well with Bob’s existing business, which makes top-of-the-range competition air rifles.
“Overnight we went from producing in a cowshed to having access to the most advanced manufacturing facility in the farming sector.”
From its new home, Port Agric was producing predominantly toppers, both single and twin rotor models from 4-9ft, as well as an ATV topper with its own engine.
“We started looking at new products and the grasscare sector seemed the natural place to start,” Mr Port said. “We added a roller to the back of one of our toppers, so that it left a nice finish on amenity ground, and found an immediate demand from the local authority and leisure sectors.”
A larger selection of ATV equipment – including a fertiliser spreader, livestock feeder and weed wiper – followed as the company continued to grow, but Mr Port was keen to expand into the hedge and verge cutting market, where he saw even bigger opportunities.
“In the UK the hedge and verge cutting market was dominated by one company and its associated brands,” he said. “There was a clear opportunity to challenge that dominance to offer both farmers and dealers a real choice of products.”
Deciding that building a new range from scratch was unrealistic, Mr Port visited Italy to look for a suitable supplier.
“The Italians are excellent engineers and I knew I would be able to find a suitable supplier there,” he said. “There were several suitable partners, but the company I chose was an organisation very similar to Port Agric where the owner was able to take immediate decisions and was willing to work with us to develop the products we needed.”
The Italian link-up allowed the company to offer a solid range of hedge and verge cutters with reaches from 2.5-7.3m and suitable for use on tractors from 20hp upwards.
“These are true hedge cutting machines that you can use for verge cutting as well,” Mr Port said. “Not verge cutters that have had to be beefed-up to handle the higher stresses that hedge cutting imposes.
“We have tried to standardise the offering so that all our hedge cutters come as standard with arm float, rotor float, rotor reverse and oil cooler. Then the buyer can have a choice of controls from a cable system to the latest electro-hydraulic offering.”
The hedge cutters have already proved a success and Port Agric is now taking half of the production from its Italian partner, which has also doubled its output.
Port Agric has also recently outsourced its flail mower production to Italy and Mr Port said this move was already paying off.
“The latest Series 2 versions of our Jaguar, Jupiter and Javelin machines are flying out the door,” he said. “Our old machines were extremely well built, but were prohibitively expensive. Now we’re selling the right machines for the right money.
“There’s been no compromise on design and we’ve worked extremely hard with our supplier to produce the ideal machine for the UK market. The new Javelin 2 has been particularly well received and is now a much bigger machine at up to 3m wide with a 200mm rotor. It also features a rear door that can be opened if the mower is being used for shredding or closed for mulching.
“It’s a very well priced machine and so far in 2009 we’ve sold more than we did in the whole of 2008.”

Sales strategy
Colin Port is proud of the fact that about 90% of his company’s sales are made to New Holland dealers.
“That’s no accident,” he said. “When we were looking at building our dealer network we looked at our product offering and saw it was a good fit with compact tractors. New Holland was introducing its compact tractor range at the time, but didn’t have any kit to sell with them, so we moved in to fill that gap.”
Once it had established a good working relationship with the dealers, it was time to ramp up the product offering to get more mainstream agricultural products into the depots as well.
“The key to that has been getting the product range right and setting attractive terms of business,” Mr Port said. “Our dealers are key to the business so we look after them, but they also appreciate the quality of the equipment we sell – keeping warranty claims to a minimum is a good way to a dealer principal’s heart.
“Another important factor in our success to date has been giving dealers exclusive areas. The two main benefits of this are that we don’t get competing dealers discounting to win business – and then complaining about low margins – and more importantly there’s more incentive for the dealer to stock a reasonable supply of parts to keep customer downtime to a minimum.”
Although the company is growing quickly, the Port Agric staff remains quite small. Mr Port’s PA, Rachael, runs the office with help from his wife Sue, while Mr Port combines day-to-day management of the firm with a field sales role for the West of England. Julian Ripper – who created quite a stir when he left one of Port Agric’s competitors to join the firm – represents the company in the East.
The factory has about 10 full-time staff working on building toppers and other machinery. Rather than building machines in batches of the same type, it builds machines to suit the routes delivery vehicles take.
“It’s quite a novel way of working, but it makes sense,” Colin Port said. “Our hauliers know where our dealers are and they plan routes accordingly. We are notified of the routes several weeks in advance and then build machines for our dealers along that route based on their orders.”
Machines built in Italy can also be delivered to Hailsham to be added to the delivery trucks, although sometimes the Italian loads will go direct to dealers as well.
“Whatever happens, we will always send out full loads,” Mr Port added. “We know what our dealers should be selling based on the type and number of farmers in their area, so if there’s space on a lorry we’ll add in something they can put into stock.”
Mr Port acknowledged that his company is now creeping up on its larger competitors and he’s getting ready to take the business to the next level.
“I know many of our dealers also sell competitor’s products, but it’s time to start persuading them that they can get far better margins working only with us,” he said. “Our comprehensive product offering means that we’re making inroads, but so does the fact that they know they can get in touch with me at any time to discuss the products.
“My name is on these machines so I have a very personal stake in this business, and this is backed up by the fact that I spend as much time as I can on the road talking to potential customers and collecting feedback about the products.”

Completed machines from Hailsham, and hedge cutters from Italy, await the delivery lorry.