
Maserati, Porsche and Peugeot lead the pack as Wicklow vintage car show goes off with a bang
There was a truly unique selection of motors on display in St Patrick's Church, including a very original 1920s Bentley, a rare 1950s Maserati and a magnificent 1980s Ferrari, as well as a rank of unique Ford vehicles, spanning the decades, showing how the marque has evolved over the years.
All were hoping to impress the special guest judge for the show, expert dealer and social media influencer, Nadia Adan from Ashford Motors.
Remarking on the turnout, organisers Andrew and Philippa Bailey said: 'We are delighted with the huge amount of support for the show, both from those exhibiting cars and those attending as visitors. It was an event run by the community for the community and was a fantastic example of everyone coming together to create something special.
"The atmosphere was really uplifting, with the Stedfast Band providing wonderful music, children playing games, the parish refreshment tent being a central focus for socialising and the golden ticket raffle for rides in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang causing great excitement. It was also an honour to have the winning Deutz tractor from the 1964 World Ploughing Championship on display too,' they continued.
"We had a remarkable array of cars on show, many from private collections, but there could only be three winners. The public voted an exceptional 1956 Maserati 150S as their car of choice, the entrants voted for a 1933 Peugeot 301CR and Nadia Adan of Ashford Motors, who was the celebrity judge, chose a 1973 Porsche 911 E as her favourite.
'We would like to thank everyone who travelled to come to the show, all the amazing volunteers and also our sponsors: Ashford Motors, Auto Care, AXA, Glen Fuels, Goggin Insurances, King Tree Services, Panda, Pension & Financial and Powerscourt Estate,' they concluded.
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The Irish Sun
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- The Irish Sun
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The Irish Sun
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Irish Independent
03-06-2025
- Irish Independent
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'We have to be very flexible on producing feeders to the customer's requirements. Rather than producing the full basic product, we prefer to offer solutions that best match their enterprise.' Out of season, Abbey can batch-build products, but in season it has to adapt and manipulate its planning and production schedules while also offering perhaps a door at the back, or some other optional equipment to put in the machine. 'Where we see the biggest variability is around the door arrangement and the height. Depending on what they did previously, their trough height is a big issue. "In some of the older sheds, it can be hard to manoeuvre, so you might end up where a guy is reversing his feeder in and using a rear door. 'While the feeder is a standard enough piece of kit, the height and door arrangements are what the customer might want specified. 'You'll find the very large or very small customers will have a particular need, and we're flexible on that side of things. 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The company has three parts: manufacturing, two retail outlets and spare parts. Clodagh, whose background is in accountancy, spent summers working in the factory alongside her brothers Owen and Cormac. Clodagh didn't walk into the business with ambitions to become managing director: 'I came to do a project, and the project extended. I grew with the role and the team.' Running a family company founded in 1947 comes with responsibility. 'It's more rewarding, but also more challenging. 'We made the decision to invest in our people and ourselves when we moved to Toomevara 10 years ago. It was a huge decision, but look what we've achieved. 'We're a family-owned, professionally run business that all comes back to the customer. 'If we understand what the customer needs, we can provide the best solution. 'When we bring customers here, we show them what we're about – our capabilities, our understanding. That gives results. That was backing ourselves and the team.' 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The new premises allows that and it also allows the company focus on 'containerisation' – making sure the machinery fits into a shipping container. Getting equipment to fit into a shipping container means significant savings on shipping costs. "We can fit three large feeders across two containers, and we have trained them to part-assemble. But the cost variation is about 60pc less to go in a container." To help manage this, the new site has a sunken loading bay which replicates the size of a shipping container. "It has opened up a lot for us. When we are exporting, we're talking to customers about roll-on, roll-off, or if it will go in a shipping container." And while local manufacturers may have a cost advantage other markets, 'for now, it's important that we stay close to what we're doing in the community,' she says. 'Quality, durability, and our ability to support customers are so important to the company mean every new product must be assessed for its impact on sustainability, efficiency, and what it can offer the customer.' Looking out the window at the company's testing ground in the adjoining field, she says that given the different climates we have and the different topography, anything that's tested in Ireland is good for 90pc of the world. 'And for the areas that we have to look at drier material, we bring that in and we test it here. 'Our view is, if it's tried and tested in Ireland, it will generally work anywhere.' Last year was 'extremely challenging' for the company. "We wrote the most fabulous business plan five years ago. It was beautiful. But life happens when you're making plans and we had Brexit, Covid and the uncertainty with wars,' Clodagh says. 'For a long time there was a 12-month wait for steel. Then all of a sudden, the supply chain caught up with themselves and every dealers yard across the world had a huge stock of tractors, which impacted their availability to take our product in. It was like someone hit the brakes. 'So we have to focus on what we have within our control and drive on and make sure that we're as efficient as possible and as innovative as possible.' And into the future, labour shortages and a gap in the skills market are Abbey's main concerns for the next 5-10 years. 'The height of the labour challenge came about three months into Covid – the government supports were so good and we could not get staff.' To address this the company has been involved with Enterprise Ireland and its apprenticeship programmes. 'Before Covid you could have sold Tipperary, the lifestyle and flexibility, but the labour market has changed and for us it's to encourage people to show them the skill set that we upscale, that we support the staff for training and different opportunities given the global footprint we have now.' And while Enterprise Ireland has been supportive, Ireland isn't necessarily an easy place to manufacture, she says. 'I think the government have a strategy here to support businesses, but it's not without its challenges, and there's been a lot of costs put on to companies and we need to ensure that we don't become uncompetitive. "Because Ireland is a small country and we're surrounded by water the only way for our companies to grow is to expand overseas, and for that, we need to be as competitive as possible.' She compares the agricultural equipment sector in Ireland to the car industry in Germany, name-checking the likes of Dairymaster, McHale, Pearsons and Combilift. And those in the sector are very good to each other, with Abbey getting great advice from others when it came to looking at new markets and technology. 'We've been at shows in Germany where other companies would help us with the stand set-up or moved a piece of kit for us. I think we have a really good community and network of companies within the sector. 'When we're looking at different markets and thinking of going to a show, you pick up the phone and ask those who have been how did they find it, what was the benefit of it. 'And Enterprise Ireland have people in the markets who can help with market research, or if there is a language or cultural barrier their help is really important.' That network of Irish manufacturing companies has also allowed Abbey to learn, while they too have opened their doors to other Irish companies to see how they do things. 'You can learn from other people's mistakes, people have learnt from ours. But we try to make sure we have the right product that gives a return on investment to our end user. "All equipment has gone extremely expensive, as has the cost of doing business, so we're trying to make sure we're saving labour, that we're reducing costs on farms, that we're increasing the milk yield – that's what it comes down to, profitability for the end user.'