Greenworks Commercial Tools - Tuckwell, Ardleigh

General information

In 1954 Len Tuckwell established a company called ‘Worlingworth Contracts’. The company employed three people and used Fordson Major tractors to contract spray farms at 7s 6d, a service that at the time had no competition. It was this foresight that started the ball rolling for the Tuckwell family and it was not long before expansion into machinery sales came along with sub dealerships for Ford and Ferguson. Soon after this the Allis Chalmers franchise was secured by Len and by 1964 he was farming at Bedingfield, trading machinery, fertiliser, agro-chemicals and his fleet of hire sprayers had reached 400.

It was in 1965 however that the major development came in Tuckwell's history, when Len was approached by John Deere to become one of the UK’s first four UK dealers. The company had heard of Tuckwells from their sales of Lundell drills, the previous importer of John Deere products and Len, regarding John Deere as an up and coming company relinquished his Allis Chambers franchise and the rest as they say is history.

Since those days the relationship has gone from strength to strength, during 1978 L. E. Tuckwell were proud to become the first UK dealer to sell over £1,000,000 worth of John Deere products. This was the era of the 1020-4020 tractors and these models combined with Len's service based approached propelled both companies into major players in East Anglia’s machinery world.

By 1975 Tuckwells had expanded into North Essex with Len’s son Paul, at the tender age of 21, moving down to set up P Tuckwell Ltd at Ardleigh. This gave the company a new customer base to expand sales into and allowed the John Deere product to be sold into a part of the country where previously their representation had been poor. Paul’s first customers included H Cobbald of Little Bentley with the purchase of a 3130, JA Low with the purchase of a 2130 and M N Southgate with the purchase of a 960 combine. The move proved a huge success. Paul brought his father’s service based approach to Essex and this dedication to after sales was exactly what the farming community wanted. Further expansion with a workshop and parts department followed in 1980 and in 1986 Tuckwell’s entered the amenity market with the appointment as John Deere groundscare dealers for Essex. This represented another major step and with the proliferation of golf courses in the region it was not long before the department had its own sales team and dedicated technicians, and was contributing a significant amount to the company's turnover.

In November 2001, P.Tuckwell Ltd expanded further into Essex by purchasing part Blyth and Pawsey, another well established John Deere dealer, . By incorporating these depots they became one of the largest machinery dealerships within the South East, all operating under the name P. Tuckwell Limited, selling the complete range of John Deere products.

Today the original business L E Tuckwell ltd is still involved in farming and contact farming, haulage and fertiliser while P Tuckwell Ltd looks after all machinery sales.

The company continues to go from strength to strength, employing over 100 staff across five locations, over 50 of these being technicians in mobile workshops. Development has continued at all locations with workshop expansion at Worlingworth and Great Dunmow and building work staring soon at Ardleigh for a new purpose built groundscare facility.

Paul has been joined by his son James, as joint managing director and they both believe that the reasons for the company's success is the continued commitment to delivering on Tuckwells founding ethos - providing quality, reliable products that offer value for money, service aware dealerships, able to provide customers with the afters ales care and service they required, and a team of staff that can connect with the agricultural and amenity community, who are prepared to go the extra mile for their customers.