Alan Doggett knows the land, his range of products and the Central Coast community like the back of his hand.

Driving through the Yarramalong Valley, the tranquillity and rolling fields of greenery make it hard to believe you’re only an hour and a half from Sydney’s bustling centre. Situated on the main road is Yarramalong Farm Supplies, a rural store stocking a diverse variety of livestock feed, accessories and shed-to-field farm supplies.

Alan started the supplies business in 2021. After moving into a nearby property a few years earlier, the commercial plasterer and his wife, Renai, stumbled across a local turf farm up for sale. From there, the pair expanded their real estate once more, opening their rural stockist Yarramalong Farm Supplies across the road.

It’s a family affair. Al and Renai have six children between the ages of three and 20, with some of the older kids working in both the turf farm and supplies store. “There’s something really special about working with your family,” Al tells Kochie’s Business Builders. “Everybody helps out whenever they have to.”

Watch Al’s story here:

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Meeting the needs of regional retail

Already having a commercial construction business to his name, Al built a retail clothing store within the farm supplies outlet, becoming the exclusive supplier of Ringers Western clothing to the Central Coast region. With so much retail inventory now on offer, Al and his team rely heavily on Square’s payment systems to keep track of everything.

“Being a retail business, we love Square because it really suits our needs,” Al says. “We know what’s going on, the customer knows what’s going on, and it works.”

As a farmer himself, Al knows the importance of providing speedy and accurate service to his customers.

“When we’ve got six cars lined up in the driveway with horse floats on the back, these people aren’t mucking around,” Al explains. “They want to get in and out, and we want to know that when we are serving them.”

With an online platform that automatically updates and syncs across the network, Square tells Al exactly what he needs to know right at the point of sale, reconciling inventory across all his businesses.

“Although we’ve got different locations, with the press of a button we can flick through the businesses and see the reports, the sales, and the orders within each business,” Al says.

Fires, floods and pandemic: A lesson in resilience

The versatility of Al’s troupe of businesses has kept things moving through periods of great adversity, including severe floods and the COVID lockdowns. “That’s really where the diversity that we have across all of our businesses really came into play,” Al says. “No matter what the situation, I think we need to be listening to our customers.”

When COVID hit, Al saw the vastly different impacts the lockdowns and industry shutdowns had on his businesses. As Al’s maiden construction business was forced to put down the tools, his turf farm experienced a sudden rush in interest as more people were at home spending time on their properties.

“The fact that the turf farm was going really well, I was able to move employees from the construction company into the turf farm,” explains Al.

In turn, when severe flooding affected the turf farm, his construction company was returning to normal operations. Determined to keep his employees on the payroll, Al once again had some of his team ditch the turf for the tools, temporarily shifting his resources for long-term benefit.

It’s this resilience that has helped Al’s businesses continue to grow. Today, with their feet deep in the world of turf, farm supplies and high-quality apparel, the Doggetts have added an outdoor coffee joint, Turf Hut Espresso, into the mix for anyone who needs a caffeine hit or wrap while picking up their farm supplies.

A business blooming with its community

With the support of his local community, Al emphasises the value of people throughout all his business endeavours.

“Regional businesses need to understand that we’ve got to really go out of our way to support our customers,” says Al. “They look after us if we look after them.”

To Al and his family, maintaining a sturdy connection with the locals is paramount. These relationships extend beyond paying customers too, with his vast team of employees being considered his most valuable asset to growth.

“Some of our proudest achievements would have to be the growth that we’ve made in the business, and the growth we’ve had with our employees,” Al shares. “We’ve seen them grow exponentially and we really enjoy watching them move forward with not only their working careers, but their lives.”

According to Al, the worst thing you can do as a business owner is to put your employees in a box. Instead, he urges people to nurture their employees’ potential.

“If you can water that person and grow that person, then the business as a whole can grow,” he says.

Yarramalong Farm Supplies is part of Kochie’s Business Builders and Square‘s Regional Heroes campaign to celebrate the vital contributions regional businesses make to our communities. Square is committed to helping businesses of all sizes adapt and grow, no matter where they’re based. See how Square can help your business today.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with Square.

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