As a co-operative, the business is owned by its members and revolves around the supply and demand of goods and services between its members. We’ve been asking our members what they value about Ringlink.
We hear the thoughts of Chae Stewart from C&A Stewart in Huntly.
We own a mixed farm near Huntly and we’ve been involved as a Ringlink member for over 12 years.
Years ago, a contractor who did everything in the area stopped, so we turned to the Ring then. Now we use them not only for labour and hires, but also fuel – tractor diesel and heating oil as well as fuel cards – and also utilities and things like fertiliser and grass seed.
How would I describe Ringlink? Very helpful. They can act as a middleman – which sometimes just adds another link in the chain, but often it means they can act for you.
So if I’m looking for prices for electricity or fuel for instance, they know the suppliers to phone round and they do it all. It’s saved me a lot of work and they don’t send in a bill for doing the legwork, it’s just part of the membership.
We’ve been doing a one-off building project recently and they’ve been really useful whilst it has been ongoing. Ringlink has supplied all the concrete and one of the handy things is that they’ve got accounts with a vast array of companies. So if you want to get something from a supplier that you’ve never used before, you don’t have to go and set up an account, you can just organise it through the Ring.
One of the real benefits we appreciate are the fuel cards, which certainly reduce our fuel costs.
It’s not just supplies. We were pouring some concrete and laying down steel reinforcement mesh and needed help. We were really struggling for people and up against it time-wise – we really just needed bodies on-site. I asked Ringlink to help, thinking ‘this may not work’. But they just kept on phoning members and found someone, then another and another and it all worked out fine. If I hadn’t had them to do that, then I would have probably had to postpone the concrete pour.
There’s always someone on the end of the phone to give you a steer, say if I’m looking for a price for silage – you don’t feel uncomfortable phoning and asking them.
One of the real benefits we appreciate are the fuel cards, which certainly reduce our fuel costs.
We could get a fuel card elsewhere but usually you’d have to change them regularly – you know, to keep them on their toes so they don’t just start eking the price up. With Ringlink, they’re in it for the farmers because it’s a co-operative rather than a fuel company so they’ll always try to get the best price.
So I’d say Ringlink membership is worth it. It’s just the handiness of it, and our membership fee is not a lot spread over 12 months. If somebody asked me, I would say yes – definitely join Ringlink.”
- What do you value about Ringlink? Get in touch and let us know
