Blaney, a new name in machinery for tractors

March 3, 2013

Although Blaney Agri is a new name to grace the farm machinery stage, it has a vibrant history centred around a passion for design, engineering and manufacture.

A few of the Blaney Agri Solutions team

It all started at Sean Blaney’s family farm in Ahoghill, Co Antrim, N. Ireland. By his teens, Sean was involved with motocross and becoming a recognised expert in motorcycle repairs. In 1993, when Sean was 18 the opportunity for quad repairs prompted him to establish The Quad Shop, a local quad and mx sale and repair shop, set up in his father’s farm buildings. While studying for a degree in manufacturing systems Sean used his student loan, not to assist with his studies, but to invest in bikes and spare parts. Sean worked in the Quad Shop on his year out from university, where 20 years ago he designed, developed and launched the first products in the Quad-Equip range or Quad-X as we know it today.

When his recommendations for improvements to the design of kids’ quads were ignored by manufacturers, Sean decided to design and manufacture his own range of quads, under the name Blaney Motor Company, Europe’s first and only quad bike manufacturer. No mean task for an established company, never mind a young fella starting out in business. Sean set to work on designs and sourcing European component suppliers. Far from giving himself an easy time on his year out, Sean was committed at this young age to putting in the hard work to realise his own ambitious goals to become a world class design and manufacturing business.

The noughties saw the start of an exciting new era for Blaney Motor Company with the production of the FX Range of children’s quads. A large dealer network was set up with a huge focus on export, selling to dealers all over Europe. Blaney Motor Company built a team of young, enthusiastic and dedicated employees many of whom are still employed with the business. By the mid-noughties, Chinese manufacturers had flooded the European market with bikes of poor quality. With prices so cheap, Blaney Motor Company was unable to compete since the Blaney quads were built on performance and reliability.

By 2005 Blaney Motor Company reluctantly had to take the decision to bring production to a close and the business had to restructure and turn to Quad-X to keep the business going. However Blaney Motor Company is still active in terms of vehicle design and is currently developing a new vehicle concept to be finalised by 2015.

Over the next five years, Quad-X worked tirelessly to design and develop over 100 innovative ATV attachments, including their patented double roller weed wipers and power shredder mowers. Following the success of the range of Quad-X ATV attachments, customers were continually asking for larger machinery and so Quad-X began the design and development of tractor machinery, starting with the Tractor Power Shredder range. Other developments have included aerators, hedgecutters, bale shredders, bale unrollers, cubicle and poultry bedders and weed wipers.

With the success of the tractor machinery the company has decided to split its ATV and tractor machinery into two divisions. ATV and UTV equipment will continue to be sold under the Quad-X name, while machinery for tractors will go under the name, Blaney Agri Solutions.

Incidentally the Blaney name ties in with other engineering based companies, all headquartered from Sean’s family farm – Blaney Gears Precision Engineering and Blaney Fabrication.

Quad-X and Blaney Agri have experienced phenomenal growth in their product ranges over the last few years, making them of the fastest growing agri machinery ranges in UK and Ireland. Thanks to the company’s engineering expertise and innovative design, customer demand is driving new product development at such a pace that they are faced with the dilemma of which projects to focus on first.