It’s easy to talk a big game around quality and durability. At Finch Engineering, they simply point to a nearby paddock.

At harvest time, on a farm up the road from their headquarters in the tiny Queensland town of Kaimkillenbun, north-west of Toowoomba, you can still see the very first grain haulout bin Finch manufactured in 1983 doing precisely the job it was designed to do.

“Quality, reliability and service. That’s what we pride ourselves on,” says Leroy Finch, the second-generation managing director of Finch Engineering. “Without those three things, we don’t have a business.”

Finch started with Leroy’s father, Des, who at age 13, with his brother, built a 15-tonne grain bin on the family farm.

That planted the seed, so to speak, and soon enough Des became a boilermaker, bought some land, built a workshop and started designing the rugged, reliable grain haulout bin he knew many farmers in the area needed.

Fast-forward to the present and the business – which was handed from Des into Leroy’s stewardship in 2007 – now averages around 100 grain haulout bins and 50 mother (storage) bins a year. These are snapped up by grain farmers all over Australia looking for a product engineered specifically for local conditions.

And for a bumper year, just add water. “For us, the wetter it is, the better it is,” Leroy says. “If you can’t get a truck onto the paddock, that’s where our bins come into play.”

A key Finch Engineering philosophy is to build the product the customer wants. “We don’t use the bins every day; our customers do,” Leroy explains. “We let them tell us what they like – and what they don’t like.”

Competing against multinational brands, Finch Engineering promotes its in-field service program, with two trucks ready to travel anywhere in Australia. “We like to try and service our own gear all the time as much as we can,” Leroy says.

A longstanding relationship with NAB has helped Finch Engineering grow into its market and grab opportunities. With the help of Joe Robinson, NAB Senior Agribusiness Manager at nearby Dalby branch, Finch Engineering acquired Miitze Industries in 2009, adding specialist augers to its range of grain-handling tools. In 2019 it purchased Nandor, a horse float and trailer specialist, adding complementary engineering capabilities as well as a hedge against the ups and downs of primary industry.

“There’s nothing too hard with Joe, that’s what I like about him,” Leroy says. “At the current time we haven’t needed to ask for extra credit. But with purchases we’ve done in the last couple of years, there’s been no dramas. It just happens quite easily.”

With NAB’s support, Finch Engineering has ridden seasonal ebbs and flows. “There have been tough years and we’ve stood by them,” Joe says. “Since COVID, the business has gone from strength to strength. I think they’ve built a really good business.”