2024 is a momentous year for Jas P Wilson as it celebrates its 60th anniversary and a new generation steps up to take charge. Forestry Journal spoke to Billy and Jim Wilson about the company’s past and its future.
WHAT do Nutella, the Ford Mustang and Brut aftershave have in common? They were all introduced in 1964 and celebrate their 60th anniversary this year. Joining that illustrious company is Dalbeattie-based forest machinery firm Jas P Wilson.
Renowned equally for its commitment to service and for sourcing, supplying and manufacturing some of the best machinery on the market, it’s a business that has come a long way in six decades, with a remarkable story to tell.
Anyone who’s met brothers John, Billy or Iain Wilson will know their family is the origin of the company name, but you could be forgiven for wondering about the ‘Jas P’ part. That refers to their father and the company’s founder, James Pearson Wilson, known to friends as Jim.
Though he was born into a farming family, Jim didn’t fancy a life in agriculture and wasn’t particularly interested in school, but had a passion for working with machinery.
After a spell in the RAF, working as an engineer in various countries, and carrying out some contracting work back in the UK, he spotted an opportunity to set up his own business, forming Jas P Wilson Land Drainage in 1964.
Back then, land drainage was big business, and the company grew steadily over the next 20 years, offering trenchless draining to a range of agricultural clients.
In the early days, he could only afford basic machinery and Jim repaired it all himself, designing improvements and coming up with new ideas. He also designed and built his own stone-picking machine, which he had patented.
In 1975 the company acquired its first County tractor – a brand with which it would become synonymous. By 1984 it had a fleet of 12, among other machines like Roadless, Muir-Hill and various excavators.
Jas P Wilson now employed 20 people, operating across three squads around Dumfries and Galloway. They included Jim’s two eldest sons, John and Billy. John worked out on the field while Billy looked after the machinery from the workshop at Carsethorn, ensuring it was always well presented – especially the Counties. Sadly, for both the business and the family, things were about to take a devastating turn.
In early 1985, government grants on land drainage – which had for so long supported the industry, covering 75–80 per cent of farmers’ costs – were cut overnight.
Then came an unimaginable tragedy. Jim and his father-in-law were driving near the town of Gatehouse-of-Fleet when their car was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry. Both men were killed in the accident.
At that time, John was 27 years old, Billy was 22 and Iain was just 12. While still grieving the loss of their father and grandfather, John and Billy were now faced with the huge task of trying to rescue a business which appeared to have no future.
Billy said: “We had a lot to contend with, but we knew we had to change the type of business we were in.
“We downsized to one squad. John continued to contract and I looked after the fleet of machines we had.”
After a couple of very difficult years, the family tried their hand at shellfish harvesting on the Solway Coast, using dredges pulled behind County tractors in shallow water.
The company worked hard at this for a year with both day and night shifts. Iain would quite often do a night shift, then head straight to school in the morning.
However, a change in the company’s fortunes was right around the corner.
Billy said: “It was a local forestry contractor, a friend of my father’s, who suggested we could recondition County tractors and sell them into forestry.
“I had reconditioned and sprayed all the County tractors in our fleet, so I knew them inside out. That contractor helped us get our first two orders.”
So began Jas P Wilson’s transition to becoming a specialist in forest machinery. Sales quickly took off and soon the decision was made to stop contracting all together.
Instead, John took on a new role as the company’s travelling salesman. This wasn’t an area in which he had any experience, but he took to it like a fish to water.
“It was one of the best things we could have done,” said Billy. “Having a full-time salesman on the road really helped raise our profile, as well as advertising.
“John had no sales training, but it was amazing what he managed to do. He was run on a shoestring, but would visit as many customers as he could during the day, then take a customer out for their tea in the evening, and wherever he was staying that night, would invite another customer out for a pint. He was always networking. We’ve moved on a lot in the years since John came off the front line, but when he was out and about he would have been the best-known face in forestry, by far.”
By securing the Igland winch and Patruuna crane franchises, the company improved its offering to customers and soon the sale of County – and subsequently Valtra – tractors into forestry was its bread and butter.
Bigger premises were also required and workshops were rented from the local estate – the same workshops in which Jim had designed and built his stone-picking machine 30 years earlier.
In 1994, with the forestry business now firmly established, the decision was made to build a purpose-built workshop on the family farm at Dalbeattie.
However, by now it was becoming clear that the County’s days as the first choice for forestry were numbered.
“The Counties reached an age where the finance companies didn’t like financing them,” said Billy. “We became a dealer for Valtra and quickly realised it would be the County’s replacement. It had better ground clearance, was easy to guard and had a swivel seat, which all made it more appealing.
“It was probably about 1996 when we realised the County’s days really were over, but if not for that tractor and all we learned putting it into forestry, we wouldn’t be here today. I still say you can’t beat a County.”
In 1997, Jas P Wilson added a significant asset to its range with the acquisition of Botex trailers and cranes.
“Botex had been our big competition,” said Billy. “We would get frustrated because a lot of our potential customers liked buying British, so quite often we would lose out to Botex. Then John got a call from the owner who said they were selling up and wanted to know if we were interested. We both thought if anybody could do something with Botex, we could.”
With little to no manufacturing experience, it was an extremely ambitious endeavour, but with the help of some expert partners in Ewan McVey and Stewart Morgan, this developed into the product known by customers today.
“Ewan had an engineering company in Lockerbie,” said Billy. “He did the fabrication of the cranes and we made the trailers here. Stewart, who’s still with us, built the trailers. It got to the point where we were relying so much on Ewan and he was relying so much on us that it made sense to set up our own manufacturing facility.”
Over the years that followed, the family-led team continued its journey to establish itself as a specialist forestry equipment supplier, with Iain Wilson playing a significant role in developing the business’s forestry machines department. Over the years, this department has specialised in the retail and supply of purpose-built forestry harvesters and forwarders, including operating as the Rottne dealers for some time, before focusing on the supply of reconditioned units from various brands, and their spare parts. The quality used spare parts business is something which has been an incredible addition to the business over the years, with Iain steadily increasing the stock and allowing the business to support forestry workers globally with a comprehensive range of quality, affordable used parts. To continue the family legacy, Iain’s two sons followed him into the business, with Kris and Ryan now working within the many departments on site.
Since 2000, the company has grown steadily, adding an enviable number of well-regarded brands and products to its range, including Harvadig, FAE forestry mulchers and Posch firewood equipment, which would eventually become one of its most valuable assets.
“Firewood started as a sideline for us,” said Billy. “We sold tractors, machinery, forwarders and harvesters. When the opportunity came up to sell firewood processors we weren’t sure, but it’s the biggest part of our business now.”
That success can be attributed to both market demand and the sure-footed leadership of Billy’s son Jim (another James Pearson Wilson, after his grandfather), who joined the family business in 2004.
“I got started in the company when I was 15,” he explained. “I wasn’t the best performer at school and was at a bit of a crossroads. But in the first six months here I learned an awful lot and started to think it was a viable option.
“So I signed up to a four-year forestry national certificate apprenticeship, alternating eight weeks at Barony College and eight weeks here. In that time I worked through all the different departments, learning about everything we did, from our own brands to our work on forwarders and harvesters, attachments, tractor refurbishments and more. I think that gave me a good grounding.”
In 2009 it was decided Jim should take on responsibility for the Posch side of the business, which was just beginning to gain traction and needed someone at the helm.
Essentially a division itself, Jim initially handled the aftersales on his own, selling spares, dealing with customers, delivering and installing machines, repairing and recommissioning them.
He recalled: “I would get loaded up with the machine I was going to deliver, plus a bunch of spare parts, set off on the Monday and return on the Friday, having delivered the machine and done four or five services and other repairs on the way there and back. It grew so quickly and kept me so busy I eventually had to begin recruiting a team to help.”
From there he graduated to controlling most of the company’s aftersales department, bringing it up to date with the implementation of modern software.
“We had software, but we weren’t utilising it properly,” said Jim. “So I put in as many systems as I could, then started to pull other departments into the way I was working, to the point where the whole dealership was working in the same platform.
“It was all about gathering data to help us make better decisions. The sales team can do a much better job if they’re getting information fed through on all the correct costings and efficiencies we can do on the servicing side.
“Eventually I managed to get the nod from everyone to take the next step, investing in new software to bring everything under the same umbrella, so that sales, machinery stock, parts stock, aftersales and field service are all working in conjunction with each other.
“It was absolutely necessary for us to do that to be able to move forward. There’s no doubt we’ve seen a lot of growth as a result of its implementation.”
This aftersales overhaul coincided with Jas P Wilson’s move into its new office and spare parts complex. Five years in the planning, the company’s biggest-ever single investment finally opened its doors in 2019.
The years since have offered no shortage of challenges, from the lingering effects of Brexit to the impacts of the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine. There have also been some very positive developments, such as the launch of the highly innovative Mantis tree-pruning attachment and the expansion of the in-house training programme. Step by step, the company has continued to strengthen its position in the marketplace, building on its hard-won reputation for quality and service.
Today its workforce stands at just shy of 80 people, with 25 on the manufacturing side and a team of service engineers, including five in England, ensuring the company can be highly responsive to the needs of customers, wherever they’re based.
At the same time, a succession plan has been brewing, culminating earlier this year in Billy stepping down from role of managing director to let Jim take his place.
“It’s been on the cards for a long time,” said Billy, who admitted to never being entirely comfortable holding the title of MD. “I only took the job because someone had to. I would have been much happier playing around with machines, and hopefully I’ll get to do a lot more of that now.
“Jim has worked his way up through the ranks from an apprentice and knows every aspect of the business, so I have every confidence in him. Over the last few years we’ve put a proper management team in place to ensure he’s fully supported. And I’ll still be involved, particularly on the product-development side of things.”
Looking to the future, Jim is excited about where Jas P Wilson is headed.
He said: “There’s a lot more in the market we could get involved in. We have a lot of belief in our own products, particularly the Mantis. Moving forward, that’s where we see a lot of our growth coming from. It’s something totally new for the market.
“The best move we’ve made has been to put a new structure in place with a full management team. It’s given me the confidence to take the company into the next phase, without my dad or John around to help. It just wouldn’t be doable without the other directors and the rest of the team around me.
“While we want to retain the same values of a family business, no one family can try to control all this. We need the right people in place, which I believe we have. And we need to trust them, which they have rightly earned through their performance and actions in their time with the company.
“My dad is the biggest inspiration in my life. I might be taller than him, but I’ve never looked up to anyone so much. He’s left some massive shoes for me to fill. Thankfully, it’s not just up to me, but the whole team, to take the company forward.”
Here’s to another 60 years!
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