We bill ourselves as a young company with a rich history, and in its nine years of existence so far, we have certainly packed in a lot of innovation, development and customer satisfaction - so we are even more excited about what the future holds for Agrimech.
Between them, the founders of our Wisbech-based company, Darren and Belinda Smith, have almost 50 years of experience in different aspects of the agricultural machinery industry. This means that when they set up Agrimech, they knew the problems their customers would be facing – and exactly how to remedy them.
“Darren’s experience as a service engineer for over 24 years and my years in a family vegetable supply service meant that we had both experienced problems with the machinery available,” said Belinda. "So many of the problems were saw were made by manufacturers doing things in a way that they believed customers were looking for, rather than providing what the customers actually wanted for their own business.
"That means that even though industry techniques and practices were moving on, machines weren’t. We thought that this was the wrong way round, and having started out supplying support services, we ended up switching to designing our own machines to try and remedy this.”
Nine years on, Agrimech has built itself a reputation as one of the country’s most trusted and dependable suppliers of field services. All machines are made at the Wisbech HQ, and supported by the company’s own engineers, and our dedication to quality service saw us triumph in the manufacturing services category at the 2017 Manufacturer MX awards, honouring the best in British manufacturing.
“Supporting and servicing other machines, we could see how so many issues like warranty, parts supply and training made life difficult for the customer, so our approach was to ensure that everything we did put the customer first and made their lives easier,” Belinda explained.
From the office administration team through to the engineers, all staff members at Agrimech know how the products work, so customers know that whoever they are dealing with at the company understands exactly what they are talking about.
“The personal touch makes so much difference,” said Belinda. “For Agrimech, it’s absolutely at the heart of everything we do. We actively promote a ‘service before sales’ approach – as far as we’re concerned, it’s better for us to lose money than it is to lose face. Take more time if necessary to do the job correctly. Good service will bring stronger sales, so that’s our priority. It’s surprising how few companies view business that way.
“We’re a family-run company, and we source as many parts as we can locally, for the benefit of our local community. We’re proud of the dedication our staff show, and the reputation that they have built for the company. A reputation takes a long time to build, but can be lost very easily, and we’d hate for that to happen.”
Belinda says the raising of standards for staff and Agrimech as a whole go hand in hand – “our continuous improvement is led by our staff” – and this sense of partnership is also reflected in the company’s relationship with its customers.
“We cannot or would not want to offer a machine into an area or business that we didn’t understand,” she explained. “Understanding the customer’s business is a necessity for what we do – we’re working together. We are supplying a machine that will help run their business and build a partnership into the future. That makes us responsible.”
Whilst Belinda is of course keen for the company to maintain its levels of expansion and development of the last nine years for the years ahead, she says Agrimech’s core values – personal service, and putting the needs of the customer ahead of anything else – will remain fundamental to its future direction, wherever that may lie.
“Every new product that we make we adds another tier to our business by adding and continuing to strengthen our manufacturing, support and service team,” she explained. “As we look to export markets across the world, we will ensure that Agrimech partners with like-minded people that share the same philosophy.”
