Well done, Richard

Scott MacCallum attended Campey’s 40th birthday celebrations and chatted with the man himself…

It’s the mid 1980s and the Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran are duelling it out to be top dogs – Through the Barricades or Notorious – you took your pick.

Whichever one he had playing on his in-car cassette player at the time, I know not, but one young man had just arrived at his Macclesfield-based bank for an important meeting with the manager.

His goal was to set up his own company and he had saved £15,000 to help make it happen. What he needed from the bank was matched funding so that he could purchase some second-hand machinery and set up a contracting business.

He had been encouraged to strike out on his own by the prospect of a Government-led Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which offered £2,000 per annum and the Bank Manager, while approving the loan, also offered some friendly and practical advice on how to get started.

Nowadays a Bank Manager is almost as mythical a beast as a fraize mower would have been back in the 1980s, but the benefits of that meeting cannot be overstated.

The young man was Richard Campey and that small contracting company, set up in 1986, has gone on to phenomenal success with the Campey name known and respected across not just the north west of England, but the entire country, Europe and the rest of the world. Sitting in the state-of-the-art Campey Turf Care premises, on the occasion of the company’s 40th anniversary, Richard could look out the window at the vast array of machinery assembled for the occasion, not just from Campey itself, but many other associated brands, and look back at a career which had surpassed even his most optimistic of expectations.

Campey Turf Care Systems is now one of world’s largest independent sports turf and ground care machinery suppliers, distributing innovative sports turf maintenance equipment.

Over the years Campey has earned a reputation for offering practical advice and superb aftercare service.

The company acts as a new equipment importer for some of the most respected grounds care machinery manufacturers including Dakota, Imants, Koro, Vredo, Foley Air 2G2, BellonMit, and Omarv.

They also have a thriving used machinery business and a subsidiary company, Tines Direct, which supplies replacement tines, blades, and replacement parts for a wide range of turf care machinery.

Richard lays much of his success at the door of his introduction to the industry. He started as a Demonstrator for SISIS, in 1976 and worked there through to when he launched Campey Turf Care. During his time at SISIS he travelling around Europe in a wagon, The Campey team extolling and demonstrating the virtues of the machinery, and also as far afield as Australia,

“I think sales people have it easy nowadays. We didn’t have mobile phones so we had to find the nearest phone boxes and either put our coins in, or reverse the charges,” recalled Richard.

“If you were going abroad, everything was done by telex. You’d be given the address of your first demonstration and have to find your way there. No SatNav – you had to stop at a garage and buy a map!” he said, thinking back to another era.

“What sticks in my mind when we got to Australia, there were two of us and we met the Managing Director and Sales Director of a dealership just outside Melbourne. They were delighted to meet two Englishmen who didn’t wear suits or carry briefcases,” laughed Richard.

Richard bought his first premises 18 months after starting the company and it is still the main Campey HQ with the new building, and site of the 40th celebrations, four miles away “Our main building was an old dairy, set in about two acres. Over the years, we’ve improved it, and it is where everything’s run from nowadays.

“This building is where we keep tractors. It looks great now but it took two of us, eight months to tidy it up.”

And with Richard’s hands-on approach to life you can bet that he was one of the two.

There must be a secret for continuing to grow a family company in times when so many others are struggling…

“George Fox, at Stockport, who was in demolition and responsible for clearing up Manchester after the war, He had his own business and he told me that his philosophy of business was that if somebody rings up for something don’t ever say no.

“Say ‘Yeah, we could do that. I can get you that.’ If there is a problem, you’ll find a way and you keep your customer happy,” said Richard.

So what are Richard’s thoughts looking back over the last 40 years of building what is very much a family business?

“The family want to keep it on. Two work in the business, while my second daughter lives next door to me.”

Julia, is now Managing Director and Richard credits her for bringing a new level of organisation to Campey Turf Care.

“She’s a brilliant organiser and very good at handling people. She also remembers everything. I really don’t know how she manages to store so much in her head,” said the proud dad.

Much of the credit for the success of the company, however, lies with someone who isn’t around to celebrate the company’s anniversary.

“I couldn’t have done it without a good wife who stood by me. Sadly, Jean died two years ago. She stood by me when I was spending a lot of time away from home and travelling when the kids were small. My dad did warn me that I was spending too much time away, and the fact that I was able to devote so much time to building the business was down to Jean.”

With 40 years behind them Campey Turf Care Systems has a proven track record which ensures customers and potential customers know they are dealing with an established and well respected company and, under the stewardship of Julia, they can look forward to many more years serving the industry.