The Farmers Mart Summer 2017 - Issue 51 | Page 102

Taylor ATV
Vehicles for every
peak and trough
» » MAY 1, 2001, WAS A
milestone for Tom Taylor as that
was the day Tom finally went
on his own after breaking away
from the family business. It
was based in Bentham (Robert
Taylor and Son) and started
originally by his grandfather
and then handed over to his
three sons (Tom’s father and two
brothers).
The larger a family concern
becomes, then the more
difficult it often is to function
as a team. At one point Tom
was in the business with four
cousins from two families, and
getting everyone together and
reaching an agreement was
often difficult as not everyone
has the same priorities. Indeed,
even when Tom got a phone
call from Honda in 1990 about
his business becoming a main
Honda dealer, it was an uphill
struggle to get everyone
together and get some
commitment.
The final straw came when
Tom put forward a plan to
expand the ATV business and
even use the blacksmith’s shop
across the road so it would be
separate from the main side.
To his annoyance, the family
said no. So, without further ado
Tom approached Honda about
looking for a fresh franchise
area. They came up with York
which was a big change and a
major gamble for Tom, but never
the less he pressed on and set
at Wiggington.
The start could not have been
much tougher as not only did he
have a one-year-old son and a
new baby daughter but initially
he was having to commute from
Lancaster. It wasn’t until the
June that Tom found a cottage
102 Summer 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
in Castle Howard to rent, a place
his family loves - in time they
bought a house and lived there
ever since.
Not long after Tom started,
Foot-and-Mouth Disease
came along to add to his
challenges. Paul Seward who
Tom was renting buildings
from at the time even asked if
he would rather just have the
workshop and not bother with
the showroom. No surprises
when Tom said no, he would
keep the whole premises,
which epitomises his desire to
succeed.
This desire has stood him in
great stead across the years
as probably his two biggest
successes and challenges alike
essentially the same – firstly,
establishing the high-quality
Honda franchise when many
others have fallen by the
wayside and secondly, surviving
the peaks, troughs and lean
times that inevitably befall the
agricultural community. A clear
example is the dairy industry
which now at last is seeing an
upturn in milk prices which has
a knock-on effect to businesses
like Taylor ATV.
I asked Tom what was the
secret of his success, aside
from hard work and relentless
determination. “Don’t be
dependent on just sales. We
do a lot of servicing and in the
lean times you can’t cut back
staff as when things improve
as invariably they do you can’t
get the good ones back. A lot
of people don’t understand
the value of good second-
hand machines. If it’s the right
machine it will cost you a lot
less and shouldn’t cripple you
with maintenance bills. We have