THE importance of good, reliable machinery and tractors is an ever-increasing factor in the world of agriculture, and the need for local service centres where repairs can be carried out to a high standard is just as important.

At J and S Montgomery, they pride themselves on providing both of these services, and have been doing so for no less than 40 years!

A family run business now based just outside Beith in North Ayrshire, J and S Montgomery Ltd started repairing tractors and machinery for local farmers in 1976 from a base at Lorabar farm at Lochwinnoch.

Last December signalled 40 years of business for the successful, family-run company, and they now employ 35 members of staff across their three sites, with the sales team led by sales director Jim Hood, a long-time employee who joined the company in February 1982, and David Fletcher, service manager, who started in 2003 straight from school.

The day to day running of the business is organised by John and Douglas Montgomery, while Stewart Montgomery and his son, Colin, still run the farming side of things, which includes a prizewinning herd of pedigree Aberdeen-Angus cattle.

The firm has two main depots and one service depot at Ayr market which opened last year, the second main depot at Stranraer has been a part of the business since 2006 and is ably run by Terry O'Neil and Robert Clachan.

"The service depot means we can cover a much bigger area, in a more efficient way," explains Jim Hood, J and S Montgomery's sales director, "we cover Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, West Stirling, Dunbartonshire, part of Dumfries and Galloway and parts of Argyll. The depots mean we can provide a full-parts and back up service to new and existing customers across a much wider area."

The business eventually outgrew the original premise on the farm at Lochwinnoch, and last spring the team made the move to larger new main premises at Willowyard Industrial Estate.

"Our original premises were right out in the countryside," explains Jim, "so we got to the stage we were needing better access, and generally needing much bigger, and more modern facilities for our customers. Hopefully that's what we've achieved!"

The new site is home to a 24,000 square foot building on a four acre site, with the total rebuild of the existing plot having started in 2014.

This new site has allowed the company to increase their ground care department, covering more domestic needs, and it also means that their service and parts department have more space and more modern premise to work out of, with the parts department run by Nicholas Nicolson.

"Lawnmowers and domestic machinery take up a higher portion of our business than they did in the past" admits Jim, "and the new set up means we can accommodate this, with better facilities for our customers. We are fully aware of how serious things are in the farming industry as a whole just now, it has affected everybody in the sector. Business is continuing, but it is slower than previous years, so we like to make the most of all avenues of opportunity, and provide the best service we can across the board."

As well as having been in business for four decades, the company has held the John Deere franchise for 36 years, making them one of the oldest established John Deere dealers in the country.

As well as John Deere, J and S Montgomery stock machinery from Honda, Kverneland, Logic, Opico, Ritchie, NC, Schaffer and many more franchises. It also has the only franchise for Nugent Trailers for South-west Scotland, all of which is run by numerous invaluable office staff, sales and the back room staff that support the 14 engineers and nine fully equipped service vans that keep customers machinery running.

To mark its 40 years in business the company has decided to host their open days on February 11 and 12, to show customers around its new premises, and give them to chance to take advantage of some special offers. There will also be a number of technical workshops for them to attend.

"The plan was to have the open day when we first moved," admits Jim, "but due to delays in the building work we didn't move in until the spring, 2015, when people obviously start to be very busy, so we have left it until now so that more customers and potential customers can hopefully come in and see us."

"It's open to all, and we're hoping it's going to be a really successful event!"