Providing prompt and professional plant servicing, sales and repairs services to the construction industry at large, Billy Moran & Sons in Longford is an exceptional family-run business that celebrates its milestone 25th anniversary in 2025. Building Ireland sat down with the founder’s son, James Moran, to find out more.
Specialising in plant machinery and large excavator sales and service, Billy Moran & Sons was established in County Longford in October, 2000 by the eponymous Billy with help from his eldest son, James.
During the intervening quarter of a century and counting, through hard work, integrity, industry knowledge and unbeatable levels of customer service, the family business has grown into one of Ireland’s premier plant and machinery repair, service and sales specialists.
Renowned for their immense expertise in JCB and Hitachi machinery amongst many others, the well-appointed modern workshop near Legan in the heart of the midlands today offers a vast range of services including testing, repairs, diagnostics and breakdown / recovery services for construction and agri machinery, commercial vehicles and cars.
Since the beginning, Billy Moran & Sons Ltd. were known and highly regarded for their expertise and services relating to large excavators, teleporters and all other plant machinery with emphasis on JCB, Hitachi, Merlo and Fiat Hitachi. From the onset, providing a mobile mechanical breakdown service was vital and they now have three fully loaded fleet vans available for onsite repairs.
All the services are in big demand and James is delighted to report that every day is a busy one at Billy Moran & Sons: “Ah look, it’s haywire to be honest with you. It’s great to be busy, but we could do with more staff, if we could find the right people.
“No matter who you talk to or what line of business you are in, the manpower isn’t out there anymore. Not only that, but to get good manpower is the real problem. We run a tight ship here, we’re a small family outfit with myself, my father Billy, cousin Damien and sister Avril.
“What I am seeing is that to keep the business going and to make sure you are looking after all your customers, you are putting in longer hours all the time, simply because the quality manpower isn’t out there. When garage men, builders or tradesmen of any description are looking for staff these days, the working class people aren’t there anymore.
“It seems to be almost impossible to get people who want to work or are able to work. Anyone who’s any addition is held onto and getting good money. When you find reliable men you have to give them good money to hold onto them. The way things are, I’m turning down work every day of the week because we’re working at full capacity, six or seven days a week if you include breakdowns.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s all great and we can’t complain. The business has come a long way and we have a lot of fantastic customers and we’re delighted to be so busy, but if I could get a couple more men, I might be able to take a step back from the servicing and repairs side of the business and concentrate more on sales. We could be selling more machinery, but we haven’t the time.”
Billy Moran & Sons made their name on looking after machinery and keeping it firing on all cylinders. They also source a great selection of high-quality, value-added, pre-owned plant and machinery which can provide customers with huge savings, not least due to the comprehensive backup service offered.
“As a rule, our sales and work all come from word of mouth and repeat business,” James continues. “We’re still selling two or three units a week, which isn’t bad at all for a small company of our size. About 70 per cent of our business is breakdown, repairs and servicing and the other 30 per cent is sales.
“We repair all plant, machinery, cars, vans, trucks, even tractors and agri machinery. You could say we have our fingers dipped in a lot of pies! The old man worked previously in Johnston Farm Equipment, the Massey dealer here in Longford. He was there in the ‘80s and ‘90s and that’s where the knowledge of the agri sector stems from.”
October 2025 sees Billy Moran & Sons reach its 25th anniversary and, while they are too busy for wild celebrations, it’s nevertheless a great accomplishment for a small family business that started from humble beginnings to have come such a long way…
“We’re in business 25 years now and there have been lots of ups and downs over the years,” James muses. “We have worked hard to get to where we are. We started off with nothing. We had a small van between the three of us and went to sites to look after machinery. As we got busier, we extended the yard, put in the workshop at home in ’04, and then got into selling stuff. It’s just grown naturally and one thing led to another.
“We specialise in good second-hand construction machinery and are renowned for our knowledge of Hitachi and JCB, the two biggest brands. Dad has all the diagnostics for Hitachi and I have the diagnostics for JCB.”
Customer loyalty has been key to the growth and ongoing success of Billy Moran & Sons, and many of these customers work in construction. “We’d work with a lot of builders, who are small like ourselves, and a couple of bigger ones, too,” says James. “To name a few, we do a good bit with Raggett Homes in Kilkenny. Also, Kiernan Structural Steel in Longford – all their forklifts and teleporters would be coming from us.
“Kenny Plant Hire in Moydow, Longford is another loyal customer. They started off on a small scale like ourselves and got bigger. We’d have a lot of machinery there and we look after a large percentage of their stuff.”
The key to Billy Moran & Sons’ success has been all about looking after customers, and that will continue to be the case going forward: “Look after your loyal customers and give them priority and you’ll get others in due course,” James concludes. “It’s all about customer service and hard work, there’s no secret formula.
“My main approach going forward will be to try to stay going as we are going, to look after the good customers we already have, and continue to give them the best service we possibly can.”
It’s worked a treat for a quarter of a century and plant, machinery and vehicle owners and operators from the construction, agri and transport sectors can rest assured that Billy Moran & Sons will continue to look after their every need for many more years to come!
Billy Moran & Sons Ltd.,
Clontymullen,
Legan,
County Longford.
Tel: 043 6676133
Mobile: 087 9777595
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, December 2025, Vol 11 No 13
