Agricast, a supplier of replacement wearing parts, has marked its 35th anniversary by reporting its best quarter of trading. The company has reported that its turnover in the quarter ending September 2022 was the same as its 2017 turnover.
William Robinson, managing director of Agricast, said: “Drought conditions over the summer, disruption in the production processes of large OEMs, the rising price of fertilisers and the cost of living have all impacted on farmers and potentially led them to seek out cheaper suppliers of replacement parts, such as us.
“My father established the business in 1987 to supply cast iron rings to Simba Machinery Ltd at the boom time for disc and press combinations. As the popularity grew, he went on to supply many other UK manufacturers with Cambridge roll and press roll rings. As the business grew over the next decade, the Agricast name started to evolve, and around the year 2000, we started supplying direct to end users. Now, 35 years later, we continue to use the same reliable foundry to annually supply over 200 tonnes of roll rings across the UK and further afield.
“In 2015, I joined the business as general manager on my return from working abroad. Since then, we have significantly increased our range. Today, we offer more than 1,200 different wearing parts, spanning disc blades and press roll rings through to subsoiler parts and custom packers and everything in between!
“I think being brought up on a farm and then becoming a Chartered Engineer has certainly helped. I have worked with the machines for which we now supply parts since I was at school. I’ve seen how the parts wear and where they can be improved. I am confident our products are made to really high standards and are as good, if not better, than OEM ones. Our parts are certainly more affordable.”
One replacement part that has reportedly performed well over the last year is the GLX point, which is backwards compatible with the Sumo GLS and is designed to deliver medium-depth cultivation with minimal disturbance. Prices start at £37.50 per point, which Mr Robinson believes offers one of the lowest costs per acre.
“As well as the GLX, we’ve seen a considerable increase in orders for pins, bushes and axles,” he said. “These parts are often damaged by excessive vibration, which can be caused by hard ground, just like we saw over the summer. We’ve also seen a lot more orders for spares to fit traditional large cultivators, which were needed to penetrate the fields this year and may have been in storage for five or six years.
“The third growth area has been in our packer range, particularly our LCP-600, which keeps costs down by utilising recycled rings.”