Fendt to open new dealership in the midlands

Fendt, part of the wider AGCO corporation, is to open a new dealership in Co. Offaly next month.

The dealership will be located in Birr; it will be owned and run by Atkins Farm Machinery.

Atkins Farm Machinery is already very well known in farming circles; the long-established business runs three farm machinery depots of its own in Co. Cork, as well as distributing a range of products to a network of dealers all over the country.

The new midlands dealership will serve as a retail outlet for Fendt tractors and machinery.

Interestingly, the Birr outlet will also be the new base for Aktins’ wholesale Bredal and Bogballe business. Atkins Farm Machinery is the Irish distributor for both Bredal and Bogballe – two well-known Danish manufacturers of fertiliser spreaders and related equipment.

Image source: Shane Casey

Bredal and Bogballe will continue to be sold through Atkins’ existing dealer network around the country. The Birr premises will serve as the new national hub for these product lines.

The official opening of the new Birr depot is expected to happen soon after the National Ploughing Championships. The location of the depot will be the Syngefield Industrial Estate, on the edge of the town.

For Fendt retail operations, the outlet will cover a large midlands region; exact details of the territories and counties involved have not yet been confirmed.

On Atkins’ own Facebook page, the company noted: “What do Atkins, Bredal, Bogballe, Fendt and the former largest telescope in the world have in common? Birr, Co. Offaly!”

Birr is indeed the home of what was once the world’s largest telescope. Designed and built back in the 1840s, the telescope – then the biggest in the world – was used to observe galaxies. It remained the largest in the world for over 70 years. The ‘Leviathan’, as it is known, still remains in Birr Castle.

In related news, ownership of Bogballe recently transferred to Erhvervsinvest – an investment company that is headquartered in Denmark. Up until this transaction, Bogballe was wholly owned by the fourth generation of the Laursen family. The company was founded by Anders Peter Laursen in the village of Bogballe back in the 1930s.

The change will not affect Bogballe’s operations in Ireland. Moreover, the current boss – one of the Laursen family – will continue to head up the business.