Club Visit to Halse South West, Honiton 27th September 2017
Text by Michael Coleman; aerial photos by Martyn Summers, other photos by Richard Galling.
About 10 members of our club accepted the kind invitation of our friends at the East Devon club to join them for a tour of the seriously impressive out-of-town new premises of Halse South West on an unseasonally wet evening in September. Halse was founded over 100 years ago and is run today by Philip Halse, who is the fifth generation of the Halse family to run the business. It specialises in farm machinery and implements, having made a business decision some time ago to move out of the tractor market and has gone from strength to strength in its specialised field. It concentrates on buying and selling in bulk, supporting this with spares and service. The growth of the business led to the move from its former overcrowded premises in the centre of Honiton (left) to the new facility developed on a green field site beside the A30 (below), which offers excellent transport links to the rest of the country and beyond.
After an informative welcome and overview from Philip, he handed over to Martyn and Ian who conducted about fifty visitors around the site with its state-of-the-art lighting, heating and security systems. This included the covered handling area where the largest vehicles can be rapidly unloaded, the yards where lines of new machines from the main manufacturers are prepared and stored under cover for sale and delivery, the service and repair workshops (which are about as far removed as imaginable from the old image of such premises) and the parts department, stocking about £1.4 million pounds worth of items. As if that wasn’t enough, the visitors were then generously treated to a varied and tasty buffet supper! A splendid evening, with thanks to all at Halse for making it possible.
