Ringlink (Scotland) - Mearns & Angus Services
10 High Street, Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire AB30 1AE
Chairman: Mark OggManaging Director: Graham Bruce
Tel: 01561 377790 Fax: 01561 378231 E-mail: admin@ringlinkscotland.co.uk
Machinery rings originated in Germany forty years ago. The concept is simple. The co-operative ring shares its equipment and operates using a central organiser who holds information relating to the available supply of machinery and labour on members’ farms and co-ordinates supply with demand.
With the high costs associated with individual ownership and operation of farm machinery, rings are now a familiar feature of Scottish agriculture with twelve in operation serving around 4500 farmers.
SAOS was instrumental in introducing machinery rings to Scotland with the first, Borders Machinery Ring, established in 1987 and regarded as the model for all UK rings.
The following year saw the launch of Mearns and Angus Machinery Ring which within ten years had achieved a membership of 500 and a turnover of £3 million. In 1989 North East Machinery Ring came into being and developed into a £1.5 million business with 400 members.
As the concept developed throughout Scotland, there was inevitable overlapping of activity. A patent need for rationalisation emerged to allow rings to strengthen their management and to make more effective use of facilities, not only in the supply and range of machinery but in the provision of labour and training. For farmer members and users, there was the potential advantage of savings in administration, greater financial security, increased availability and scope of services.
As part of its policy of delivering economic benefit to Scotland’s farmers and growers, in 1998 SAOS brokered a merger between the Mearns and Angus and North East rings to form Ringlink (Scotland), now the UK’s largest machinery and labour ring with a membership approaching 1200 and a turnover of £7 million.
Ringlink’s area of operation, from Forres in the North to Aberdeen in the East and Dundee in the South, covers a diverse range of farming practice, including much of Scotland’s main livestock rearing area and land noted for intensive arable production...a multiplicity of demands managed from a central base at Laurencekirk with sub-offices at Elgin and Ardler.
To address the problem of reductions in the farm labour pool and the modern requirement for multi-skilling in rural industry, Ringlink also operates a training company Mearns & Angus Services Ltd (MASL).
MASL is recognised by SQA as an Approved Training Centre and by the national training organisation Lantra as an Approved Training Provider.
Through its association with Ringlink, MASL has developed specialist expertise to ensure that the local farming industry and assocciated businesses have access to quality training at all levels, including SVQs. MASL also provides training for forestry, horticulture, the sport and leisure industry, management and administration and offers a full search and selection process for personnel for short- or long-term contracts.
Ringlink (Scotland)’s Managing Director is Graham Bruce: “As cost pressure mounts on all sectors of agriculture, we continue to seek diversification opportunities in response to the needs and aspirations of our members. In a relatively short period, machinery and labour rings have become pivotal players in the sustenance of rural jobs and the survival of the rural economy.”