After several years spent working for the same agricultural machinery manufacturing company, colleagues Noel Mackin and David McWeeny began to talk about going into business together. Although keen on the idea, they were unsure which direction to follow when a unique opportunity presented itself courtesy of a manufacturing firm on the other side of the world.

“The company we worked for had been approached
by a New Zealand outfit to manufacture their spreader machine in Ireland,” explains Noel. “They took it on but ultimately felt the product wasn’t quite right for them and dropped it soon after. We saw the potential of the product however, and recognised that this was the perfect opportunity to set up on our own.”

Noel and David contacted the New Zealand operator, Transpread and asked if they would extend the product's licensing agreement to include Europe. They did and the two men quickly set about launching their own company, Acuspread. They also established a relationship with Enterprise Ireland who advised them to apply for the Transform programme.

"When we started with Transform, we were probably further down the road with Acuspread than many of the other participants were with their businesses," says Noel. "Consequently the benefits we reaped from the programme probably differed substantially to the advantages other people acquired. Some of the workshops were particularly useful, particularly the one on protecting technology, and the computing one helped us to create our online spreader test for prospective customers. But for us, the major benefit was being teamed up with a business mentor who had an agricultural background. His help played a significant role in getting us to the position we are in today. When we started we had three employees. We now have 15, and that number will continue to grow throughout the coming year.”

Acuspread spreaders are the only product of its type currently available in Europe and with their unique hydraulic dispersal system and capability of spreading up to 12 tonnes of product, they are already proving extremely popular in Ireland, the UK and France. Turnover in the first year exceeded 1 million euro, and with the company poised to spread further into Europe, it’s clear that Noel and David made the right decision to go into business together.