Local Harper Adams students visited OBE-Agri recently and heard the OBE-Agri history from Darryl Hylands, a farmer’s son and founder of OBE-Agri on the Old Bann Road outside Waringstown.

Until 10 years ago, the family farm grew broilers. Regulations required broiler farms to have an incinerator to dispose of dead birds. That was in 2001. When Darryl explored incinerators and their price and quality, his attitude was ‘I can make a better one cheaper myself’.

With the practical eye that comes from using equipment you make yourself, Darryl believes it essential to get close to the customers and to understand what they need. With an understanding of the quantity and nature of the material to be incinerated, the nine incinerator models made can be modified to meet customer needs. When the first incinerator proved itself a Moy Park grower said ‘Will you make me one too?’ Soon, the original two became twenty-two and the scene was set for what is now a truly international business.

To justify his claim that he now sells incinerators internationally Darryl quoted shipping incinerators to Iceland, The Congo, Tasmania, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. Challenged that markets named were not renowned for their broiler industries he countered that customers were not now exclusively poultry producers. Incinerators are also manufactured for installation on trawlers to dispose of dead fish and for dead camels in the Middle East. The company is the largest incinerator supplier to the UK pig industry. OBE Agri now manufactures in stainless steel incinerators for the medical market.

“We have extended the successful philosophy we established with incinerators to the agricultural business”, says Darryl. “We spend considerable time with our customers understanding their needs. This often demands the manufacture of bespoke products. Our philosophy is ‘designed for you’. We have the design capability and expertise and the production flexibility to produce a quality product to meet customers individual needs economically and at competitive prices. “This flexibility, coupled with some unique product design features, are unique selling points”. OBE Agri has in the past, generously sponsored student tops for Harper Adams students from both Northern Ireland and the Republic.