The Story of Horace Fuller - The First to Manufacture the Mechanical Seed Drill in the UK
Originally established in 1922, Horace Fuller Ltd operated as a small business in the agriculture sector, located in Horsham. Since their beginning, a lot has changed with the technical advancement of the world, and Horace Fuller is no different with the changes and adaptation they have made to their services overtime.
Let’s dive into the backstory of Horace Fuller to discover how overtime the business has had to change its operation and services...
The Early Years
Horace Fuller’s manufacturing and development of the Fuller Seed Drill first began back in 1922. Impressively, this was the first mechanical seed drill to launch in the United Kingdom.
The importance of this mechanical seed drill entering the market at the time cannot be underestimated. It enabled crop growers to plant seeds into the earth without the risk or danger of them being blown away or eaten by animals, such as birds. The process behind the mechanical seed drill was that as you move along the area of land where you are wanting to grow agricultural crops, the device sows the seeds by metering them out individually. These seeds are positioned in the soil at equal distances and at a proper depth where they are sufficiently covered from being consumed by birds. As a consequence, mechanical seed drills caused a great increase in crop yields.
1945 - 2000’s
After the second World War, Horace Fuller expanded with a fleet of vans that provided door to door service to the farming community. This grew dramatically in the initial period after the war and led to Horace Fuller serving most of the South of England.
During the 1960’s, decisions for a possible change of direction were required after the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was formed with the joining of the old EEC. Quotas on the farming industry caused detriment to Horace Fuller’s business operation at the time due to Butter Mountains and Milk Lakes becoming a thing of the past. A new direction was needed if business was to thrive again, which is why mowers were integrated into the firm, whilst still maximising sales to the best of their ability in the agricultural side.
Despite the hard times for many during the recession in the 1980’s, Horace Fuller continued to expand with new additions to the department, such as radio controlled cars, which would go on to sponsor local clubs for over two decades. Then, during the early part of the 2000’s, an introduction of a wider range of garden machinery including garden tractors, chainsaws, trimmers, and much more helped continue the growth of the business. Coupled with the additions of new branches in and around the Sussex and Surrey area, Horace Fuller has evolved to become a well established supplier of high quality garden power tools.
For more information on the different stages of Horace Fuller’s evolution click here.
Nowadays
As mentioned above, Horace Fuller now stock and supply garden machinery of various brand manufacturers such as Ariens, Hayter, Mountfield, ECHO, Stiga, Westwood mowers and many more. The garden technologies are advancing rapidly, with many exciting, new releases entering the market every year.
There is understandably a lot of competition within this industry in order to gain pole position as the main provider for domestic gardeners across the United Kingdom - this is only adding to the quality of garden power tools we are now seeing available for consumers. Make sure to keep an eye on Horace Fuller so you can stay up-to-date with the next, best garden power tools to help keep your garden in pristine condition.