SEVEN years into his business venture, William Allingham is starting to taste success.


He has developed and patented a unique farming device – QUADCRATE – that attaches to the front or back of a quad to help a farmer carry small animals, posts and other farming utensils into areas that a tractor and trailer cannot reach.


“The business has been a slow burner but I’ve kept my feet on the ground. I feel that I have a good foundation and it’s time to build a team of people around me that I can trust,” William told the Impartial Reporter.
From Garrison, the 36-year-old farmer had no background in business when he came up with the QUADCRATE concept.


“One day I needed to get up a field to pick up a sheep to bring her to her lambs. I couldn’t get up there with a trailer. I made a bracket for the quad and I went over the hill no problem and picked up the sheep. I found it pretty useful and I began to think of other products that could be attached to the quad to help farmers out.”


Since then, William has been on a journey that has seen him investing £50,000 in securing patents; negotiating with the manufacturers and then taking over manufacturing on his own farm; marketing his products to a world-wide audience and winning a series of awards.


His first step was to approach Fermanagh Enterprise in 2009. “I went on the ‘Go For It’ programme and learned how to do a business plan and do the accounts. I got a loan of £3,500 from The Prince’s Trust which was a nice boost. Then I won the 2009 Eircom Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which had a £5,000 prize. That gave me a push but I thought things would get massive really quickly. I was wrong, it has taken until now to get things off the ground properly.”


Securing a patent for his creation was the next step. William hired a London-based company to carry out a patent search. When they found that no-one else had come up with a similar product, William was keen to protect his QUADCRATE brand so he hired a patent attorney. Over the past seven years he has invested heavily in this area and said: “Only for a strong patent, people can steal your idea. They could have seen my QUADCRATE, tweaked it a bit and sold it as their own. Now, if anyone does that, I have a case. I have a UK and USA patent and I have a patent pending in the EU.”


William has devised a number of packages to suit different farming specialisms: a fencing package that includes wire unroller, post holders and a tool box; a lambing package that includes a sheep cage, post holders, a lamb box kit and a tool box; a highland package that includes a sheepcage, post holders, a lamb box kit, sheep hurdles and a tool box; and a hillcrate package that has been designed to act as a rollcage for safety (if the quad tumbles). William’s Supreme Package consists of the full range of QUADCRATE products. He also plans to create forestry and hunting packages in the future.
Initially his business development manager advised William to market the product himself and have QUADCRATE manufactured externally.


“I found myself going up and down the road, saying: ‘Don’t do it that way, do it this way’. The turning point for me was when I decided to take full control of manufacturing the product on site here at the family farm in Garrison. That required me to become CE approved – which I am. Because I was able to make more of a margin and was in full control of design, I felt every batch was getting better. All I pay for now is steel and I’m a lot happier doing it to my spec; when something goes out, it goes out right,” William explained.
“I invested in a guillotine and a folder and I redesigned my workshop to allow for manufacturing here. It wasn’t simple because my brother and I were trying to make time for the farm work and QUADCRATE work. My main aim is to build a small manufacturing plant on the farm and employ three or four people over the next two years.”


William is pleased to note that a company in New Zealand is starting to make QUADCRATEs and sell them on a licence agreement. He would like to work with Invest NI to try get into the American market and already has a customer in Virginia who is keen to become an agent. Another man on The Isle of Skye has offered to generate Quadcrate sales in exchange for a cut of each product.


A recent order from Welsh hardware store Wynnstay has been William’s biggest order to date. A number of boxed products sold before Christmas and the chain now wants to provide QUADCRATE products in its 43 stores.
“I’m very pleased, and very busy!” William commented.


Through Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, he will receive a free social media workshop in the coming weeks, allowing him to target more customers on facebook and twitter. “I would like to see more likes and followers but I need to know how to turn those likes into sales,” he added.


William concluded: “I always felt that by listening to people in the know and by going with your gut feeling, you will do well. There were days when I thought to myself: ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ But I am not a quitter. I am getting good feedback, including from a farmer in Mayo who said the Hillcrate package saved his life when his quad tumbled. That’s satisfying to hear.”
William lives at Kilcoo, Garrison and was married to Ruth last May. He went to Enniskillen H.S., Greenmount Agricultural College and Harper Adams University, before returning to the family farm.