The Farmers Mart Aug-Sep 2019 - Issue 64 | Page 60

60 ANDREW GUEST LTD AUG/SEP 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk YORKSHIREMAN IN NEWARK I recently met up with the colourful owner of Andrew Guest LTD. Here is another example of a highly successful business created, developed and managed by one driven person started way back in 1980 with just £300 and a battered Mini to his name. Today Andrew Guest is well known in the business not only for the quality of his products but also his relentless energy, passion and bonhomie. As I stood in the middle of one of his huge sheds, I was keen to learn about his journey from then to now. From the corner of my eye I also spied that the battered 60’s Mini has now turned into a Range Rover Sport, his next one will be the 600HP Vogue (Andrew likes his cars and bit of a speed). Although he has been in Newark for many years, he is a Yorkshire man born and bred in Eckington, Sheffield. Andrew remembers his roots and tough upbringing, his father worked in Renishaw’s steelworks close by. As many families living that tough existence Father and Mother liked a drink which often meant things were in short supply at home and many a time the young ones went without. Childhood experiences taught him the value of money, which gave him that drive to achieve. Andrew left school and went to Caythorpe college to do a course in Agricultural Engineering. In his final two years Andrew worked on the farm as a summer job. On successfully completing his course at college Andrew was keen to start his business as an agricultural engineer. He struck a deal with the farmer who in return for very low wages allowed him the use of the yard a shed and a small house for nothing. To begin with Andrew developed a reputation for fixing and modifying just Services & Equipment Ltd Rental • Sales • Service Over 40 years’ experience in materials handling, taking pride in our professional approach & levels of service support. Fork Lifts • Teletruks • Telehandlers Proud to support Andrew Guest Independent Suppliers 01777 248465 or email [email protected] www.sccservices.co.uk about anything. Early on he adapted an old fork truck to go on the back of a tractor to act as a bale handler. There were a lot of Lely power harrows about which Andrew bought a lot of as there was a demand for electric power harrows parts. Someone who had noticed what Andrew was doing was Frank Charlton of Wrights Register and it was he that suggested Andrew look at KUHN. Andrew bought his first KUHN from Burgess’s of Bingham for £200 in 1986. It was a 1977 model and to this day its still working in Bakewell, he would love to get his hands on this first machine again. Very quickly Andrew realised that the KUHN was much better to work on and was made of much better steel owing to the better heat treatment process. Virtually from then on, he started completely refur- bishing KUHN’s and started to become the specialist he has been now for many years. As the power harrows took off, he moved into drills as well. Today they refurbish many ACCORD seed drills. In 1990 Andrew bought the yard and at that time he was still doing B&B PIGS. By 1994 he had paid for the yard,he then built the very house he lives in today. Once the house was built, he then started to modify the buildings. 1996 he built a brand-new workshop. 1998 saw a brand-new secure machinery store. In 2000 Andrew then purchased the old 1000-ton grain store next door in order to make his own shot-blasting and paint unit. This gave him the capacity to handle his already fast-growing business and gave him enough room to expand. With the expansion of his facilities Andrew started manufacturing his own parts in steel and using his own casting patterns. His replacement parts are always made to the highest spec using only British foundries. Everything is now machined in house. Andrew has always bought his parts in sig- nificant bulk but always from main dealers, as KUHN ,for some strange reason wont deal direct. The number of parts bought is staggering, at xmas they bought 54 tonnes of tines and 4 tons of gears and would you believe they are already running out! When Andrew and the team recondition KUHN’s they use many genuine KUHN parts and wherever they can improve spec/ particular parts based on their years of experience these are the ones they manu- facture themselves. When reconditioning, every machine is stripped completely down to its constituent parts, refurbished and or replaced, So, you could almost say that a reconditioned KUHN from Andrew Guest is as good as if not better than the original. When I asked about the obvious success of the company and what makes the differ- ence, Andrew was very quick to say three things “Attention to detail, know what the customer wants, reliability of equipment service”. He must be right because the busi- ness has gone from strength to strength. Despite the growth of the business Andrew still works “Hands On” in the business day to day and is an expert in the production process, so he knows exactly what a quality job looks like. He is an absolute stickler for only promising what can be delivered and only supplying what a customer needs. Because he has an infinite knowledge of Harrows, Drills etc even if a Farmer isn’t sure, he can tell Andrew roughly want he wants or what he thinks he wants and Andrew will be able to advise on exactly the right type and model of machine to do the job. Andrew Guest machines are highly relia- ble and robust; however, the best of Famers can make a handsome mess of a machine from time to time. Andrew and team have not only great expertise but also a wealth of parts which means you won’t be at a standstill for long. Despite the complexity of the machines they work on they also now have a three