‘Sky is the limit’ for eBay of the farming world

Farmkit.com was the brainchild of Beeley farmers, Pete Rowbotham and Jonathan Holmes, who had become disillusioned with eBay and other such sites – owing to scammers, high prices and a lack of specialisation.

But after the pair got speaking to technology entrepreneur Rik Grundy over a pint at The Plough, Two Dales, the idea quickly became a lucrative reality.

Will Donald, also a regular at the pub, was then drafted in to manage Farmkit.

“Since our humble beginnings we’ve grown to have around 650 registered Farmkit users and are holding between 40 and 50 auctions each week,” said Will.

“No other company is doing what we do, though. And as we’ve got a perfectly functioning website model – which could either be sold, set-up overseas or could be extended with other products – the sky really is the limit for us in the future.”

Farmkit holds its auctions every Tuesday for a six day period.

It is free to list items for sale on the website and any farm machinery can be sold.

Farmkit also take pride in their stringent security policy and have strict measures in place to tackle any scammers who venture on to the site.

Will said: “The average cost of what we sell is around £10,000, but can be far in excess of that. So it is very important that our users can be confident of what they are getting.”

While it is still early days for the businessmen – who have just about recouped their investment – they are confident that in another six months they can double their trade.

Visit www.farmkit.com for more information.