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COMPANY
HISTORY |
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| After over 30 years in business, and three location
changes, Northern Rivers Rural Buying Service is still to this day doing
what it does best - servicing the needs of the local agricultural industry,
from hobby farmers to the broadacre farmers and everything in between, including
macadamia's, sugar cane, stone fruit, coffee, avocado's, beef and dairy
farmers. The late Don Smith started the Rural Buying Service in 1970 in a small shop located at 65 Casino Street, South Lismore paying $6.00 per week rent. From that small and slow beginning, growth was steady and with more & more landowners starting to use the service, it became necessary to find a larger store. In 1974, Don bought some property at 105 Casino Street, and built a rather large shed to house his growing business. With the advent of new agricultural activities in the area with macadamia's, stone-fruit, avocado's and custard apple plantations cropping up everywhere, the business's reputation of supplying goods and services to assist these new enterprises ensured tremendous growth for the business and in 1990, the move to the current location with double the floor area and an 80 vehicle carpark was undertaken. One year later an extra storage shed was added onto the existing building to house the ever expanding range of goods and services provided to the thousands of loyal customers which have helped make this business the unique enterprise that it is today. In 1987, Don sold a share to the Fletcher and Talbot families and in 1993, after Don's death, they bought out the remainder of the shares owned by the Smith family. Peter & Heather Fletcher and Ewen & Karen Talbot are still operating the business today. In 1984, with approximately 40% of the business customers based in the Alstonville area, it was decided that a branch be opened in the Alstonville Industrial Estate. This branch opened with a staff of only two, however, within a small period of time, it was necessary to increase staffing levels to 6 due to the popularity of having the branch located in the centre of the Alstonville area to service the demands of the local agricultural farmers. In May 1999, another branch was opened in Murwillumbah with Peter O'Flannagan as manager. This store has also proven exceptionally popular in the Murwillumbah area. The customer base has increased in Murwillumbah with the store catering for the needs of the Sugar Industry as well as other activities including fruit and vegetable production. In May 2000, Labrador branch was opened and managed by Mr Ian Mullalley. Although catering for a slightly different clientel group in this area, the popularity of this latest branch of the Rural Buying Service has seen no boundaries. In September 1996, a separate company - Rural Buying Machinery Centre - was opened next door to the Lismore store to complement the Rural Buying Services range of goods and to make available tractors and machinery at competitive prices to the existing client base. The machinery centre has developed to become the districts most diverse outlet of goods and services used in not only the agricultural sector but the domestic sector as well. Here you can be supplied with items such as a small spool of brushcutter cord to a 260hp agricultural tractor with everything in between. With stores at Lismore, Alstonville, Murwillumbah, Labrador and Wardell (Fertilizer Depot) and with nearly 50 staff employed and with over 6,000 members, the business slogan of - Rural Buying Service- "Where it pays to be a member" - has never been more important |
Our Suppliers Field Day was a great success. Click here for pictures |
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© Steve Cselka 2002 - 2008 |