John Manners Ltd's Combine Graveyard!

[Applause] [Music] so so richard we're here today you go by john manners isn't it portrayed as john manning's limited which is my father's name he he started the business so yep when you hear a battle bridge film where we have the combine graveyard yes very very well named by the looks of things and but i suppose the combine are they your main part of the business yes they are i mean the combines have probably enabled us to diversify even more but uh many years ago probably 50 years ago my dad bought a old massey combine because he wanted the wheels off it for a digger he thought he could buy the combine for the same price he could buy two new wheels and then a neighbor came and he wanted the engine for an irrigation unit and then the next thing you know he bought another one and then it just slowly snowballed and then now we're at the age where we've all got what's up and we've all got next day careers pilot line things like that so it's gone from being a little service maybe supplying a few nearby to a totally different animal altogether where you know it's sort of the uk and beyond yeah because it's it's certainly not a little business anymore because you've got about is it 300 yeah sat here in this there's 300 machines on site and um we had to we've got asked a questionnaire by somebody might do a bit of research and how many will buy a yen i was quite surprised myself will buy 75 combines a year so obviously we've got to get 75 out so we'll have to take 75 down to newcastle amr to the scrap yard and then we'll have 75 every year coming in drips and drops which are brought in by our own lorries yeah with back loads from wherever yeah because obviously essentially it's a breaking business so you send parts all around the country yeah we do we get a customer he rings up and you may say i want to variate a pulley we come up here two lads like you saw before they'll take the pulley off put in a box send it to somebody hopefully it's there the next day it's pretty simple yeah and alongside that it's not just the old combine parts you do anymore you're actually going well into the new parts yeah well what we found was that the same parts seem to go wrong on the same machines and so you'd maybe get the tx is where the variator pulleys are a bit of a white weak spot you know he's got on the class combines where the sieves are a bit of a weak spot the john deere seem to have fairly weak concaves in the older ones so we'll that's what's made us go into the new parts because we're getting asked more and more again for the same parts and it was the most awful feel in the world when a customer rings you says can you supply this and you say well i could but we've run out so now we have the new parts to complement with the second hand parts business so basically hopefully we can always say yes to our customers yeah and obviously especially at the moment with the way that manufacturers are going that they're unable to supply because of the supply chain slowing down because of coburn and brexit and anything like that it's all you're obviously going to be getting a lot busier that way yeah i'm hoping i'm hoping that we're going to push it a lot harder you know our biggest thing is we have to stockpile in the in the winter because we can't get the parts quickly but that works in our favor come this summer because we can see yes we've got three of those on the shelf bang and they're gone they're there the next year so you know as long as we've got a big stockpile we're all right yeah and you actually i was one thing you've you've got a different kind of machine in one of your sheds there as well you've got one of those it's a tire fitters too yeah yeah we'll start doing a few new tires some of the certain sizes of rear tyres on the combines and we've got new 800 new 650s so it's just a another sort of slow slow slow progression into expanding our range a bit more diversification in the business yeah and are you kind of looking to expand more than the 300 combines are you happy with the number that you're running off to but unfortunately we've only got planet permission for this site so you've run out of space we've run out of space which is another reason we're doing the new parts because you know we're gonna make the range bigger without needing any more room up the breaking yard yeah no well that's absolutely brilliant it's been brilliant obviously coming out to see like the the scale of the the combined graveyard out here so thanks a million for having us out now it's been great to have grassland here thank you very much perfect thank you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so fraser we're obviously we're just talking to your brother richard about kind of the combine and the part side of things and now we're after coming into the the base of the hollier side of things because obviously you do that alongside the combine breaking and the part sales that's right and that's what you're over that's right predominantly planted and farm machinery but we do hold anything basically so we've gone from five wagons to 12 in the last five years so we'll have invested quite hard yeah and what would be your wagon of choice oh this is a difficult one someone's going to get upset here well personally yourself because obviously there is a bit of a mix here either is i know the death or a good wagon don't get us wrong but the scania will uh will uh be my number one choice you know your goal too ah definitely yeah we do all the trailers ourselves but all of wagons are on r m with daffod carlyle or um scania at newcastle so we tend to find that works best because they're on distance all the time so they need to have that backup if they're at southampton for instance or whatever and there's a problem then we'll just find it's a lot easier if they're looked after by the manufacturer again yeah and have you found that corvette or brexit has impacted the harley air side of things much a little bit we've been very busy really um we can't complain to be honest you know when you look at other businesses you know um i think we've been very lucky in the haulage game i think probably because we're predominantly involved in agriculture that that hasn't slackened and probably won't slack in no matter what's thrown at it you know and the plant side of things probably has because building sites and stuff like that's obviously been grown into a bit of a halt the show season we were panicking then it's a big income of how was that and you know and when we're seeing the royal council we were thinking oh god this is gonna be bad yeah because you do a good bit yeah yeah we'll do a lot with the highland show um but no we've just seen we've done other stuff i don't know what but we're just uh they've been busy so it probably has affected a little bit but not as bad as what i thought they certainly haven't been stood in the yard just because the highland show hasn't been going so um we'll just be pushing on really you know yeah because that was a lot i suppose with diversification between all the different kind of agricultural businesses too yeah yeah i would just tend to find that you just need to be you just need to have as many customers the bigger the customer base the better that's all we don't try and put all our eggs in one basket we're trying to do as much as everything as we can really you know yeah and it's been brilliant to see the tidy wagons that you have here as well and i know whenever i'm driving down the road with the with the chop i'm forever looking out for them that's good thanks well that's absolutely brilliant uh thanks million for chatting to us today freezer and we look forward to seeing them on the road just a job thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: GRASSMEN

Views: 319,105

Rating: 4.8996415 out of 5

Keywords: moover, grassmen, silage, harvester, tractor, new, holland, john, deere, krone, machinery, farming, farmer, ireland, uk, agri, lorry, truck

Id: IKjkyhcVyKs

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021