STAYING relevant and at the top of your game in a competitive market is a key aspect to the success of livestock auctioneering, and this is something Harrison and Hetherington, based at Carlisle, are forever striving to maintain.

A farmstock business dating as far back as the 1870s, Harrison and Hetherington have developed and expanded to be one of the largest livestock auctioneering businesses in the country, with six satellite centres on top of the main centre at Borderway on the outskirts of Carlisle.

In 1974 the company moved from a site in central Carlisle to their current main premises at Borderway .

Borderway Mart is one of the largest and leading livestock sale centres in the UK, which, along with the six other centres, see Harrison and Hetherington handle some 700,000 head of cattle and sheep on an annual basis - a number which has been seen to be increasing year on year.

The H and H group overall also has highly acclaimed auction and valuation facilities for antiques and furniture, and for company assets, alongside an insurance business and a land and property office, along with an estate agency and lettings firm. But livestock auctioneering continues to be at the very heart of things.

Harrison and Hetherington's six other marts are spread around the country - at Kirkby Stephen, Lazonby and Broughton-in-Furness in Cumbria; at Middleton-in-Teesdale in County Durham; and at Lockerbie and Newcastleton in Dumfries and Galloway and Roxburghshire respectively.

"Each individual mart has its own focus," explains Brian Richardson, who joined the H and H Group as chief executive in June 2008, "they have their own strengths, and they play to that. They're quite often breed focused. That's ideal though, because it means that each centre and its staff are experts in what they do, and know the people they deal with!"

The company regularly conduct specialist livestock sales at various other sites throughout the year and this sees a total of 100,000 head of cattle and 600,000 sheep sold either by auction, direct procurement or private sale annually throughout the course of a year.

Priding themselves on being able to 'find a customer for all types of livestock', Harrison and Hetherington have a database of more than 20,000 active clients marketing annually livestock and machinery worth £125m.

"I would say that there is a sale on somewhere in the business, every day of the week" explains David Pritchard, Harrison and Hetherington's operations director.

"Maybe at only one of our centres, but we have such a variety of sales, they're on all the time, with some times of year busier than others. There could be 20 livestock sales some weeks!"

Highly respected by pedigree and commercial farmers nationwide and in specialist fields worldwide, the company is the officially appointed auctioneers for several major beef, dairy, and sheep breed societies and clubs throughout the UK, and this has seen numerous high prices and breed records garnered by the firm.

The quality and variety of service that Harrison and Hetherington are now able to provide to their customers - both buying and selling - is highlighted by the fact they attract international buyers and sellers on top of those closer to home.

This is reflected by the active interest shown by progressive continental and home breeders purchasing animals through the sale rings for export to Europe - Belgium, Spain, Italy, France and Southern Ireland.

Developing business elsewhere however, certainly isn't to the detriment of those customers closer to home, and the mood at Borderway Mart is a positive one, with customers throughout of the opinion that Harrison and Hetherington are doing the best they can in the current climate.

One local farmer that sells his lambs through Carlisle, is more than satisfied with the service he gets there.

"Things aren't great in farming just now, but everyone knows that, and I'm happy enough with the prices I get through Carlisle" he admits.

"I really do think it's a good market, you get good buyers and as fair and competitive a trade as I think I could hope to get just now. I've been selling here for the past five or six years because of that."

Another customer happy with his lot, is William Pearson, of Wavercroft Farm at Wigton, who also sells his prime lambs at Carlisle.

"I'm well up on the week" he admits, "so that's things going in the right direction for me.

"I sell all my lambs at Carlisle. I like the people - they all know their stuff, and what you're needing them for. It's a very good market to sell at from my point of view."

Harrison and Hetherington also perform several on farm sales throughout the year, and the company don't just auction livestock - they also perform agricultural machinery, commercial vehicles, plant and implement auctions on a regular basis.

In addition to the livestock auctioneering, Harrison and Hetherington is now renowned for hosting two of the farming calendars red letter days; Borderway UK Dairy Expo and Borderway Agri Expo.

Borderway UK Dairy Expo is a truly international event with the best dairy cattle from around the UK competing.

In the five years it's been running it has quickly become the largest dedicated show of dairy cattle in the UK, a leading showcase for British dairy breeding, as well as attracting an international crowd.

Borderway Agri Expo is the leading autumn livestock showcase for the UK livestock industry. The event brings together the very best of pedigree and commercial showing classes, and this year Harrison and Hetherington can boast more than 800 livestock entries.

Alongside this event, which is now in its ninth year, there will be six breed society shows, and more than 165 trade and society stands exhibiting.

Another aspect of their business that Harrison and Hetherington prides itself on, is staff, of which there are 300 of in total within the group, with 120 of them employed in the farm stock side of the business, both part and fulltime.

"A lot of our team have been here for their whole careers" David tells us, "so they more than know the business, and the people, which is exactly what we want.

"We have also just taken on four new apprentice auctioneers, who are based first at Carlisle, but who will do their qualifications and maybe move across our other centres."

The group's attitude for the future is a positive one overall.

"The decline of livestock auctioneering has been talked about for 40 years" admits Brian, "but we're still here.

"I would say we're going from strength to strength. The structure of the mart system is still the most ideal means of selling livestock, but we know we have to move with the time, so we do. We adapt."

"We are also aware that we have to move with the times when it comes to technological developments, and that's where our newer systems of electronic bidding, and streaming live sales online come in. These systems help both our customers and our business, and so far they've been taken on board well, and are working very effectively."

This sentiment is backed by David, who is confident in the services Harrison and Hetherington provide their customers.

"Auction selling has become more complicated over the years" he explains, so it's important that we do things properly - both for our own interests and for our customers. It's a tried and tested system though, to a certain extent it's the only viable way of doing things, and we pride ourselves on doing it to the best of our abilities."

"The way I look at how we conduct our business, is that we are all about providing the best service for our customers," Brian concludes. "I think that's what it's always been about, and this will always be the case. At the end of the day, if they're happy, then we're happy!"