E E Muir & Sons expands in Limestone Coast with larger Penola store

E.E Muir & Sons key account manager for Penola Scott Hetherington says the branch outgrew its previous location in the main street where they have been since buying independent merchandise seller, Limestone Coast Ag Supplies from Doug Redman in 2007.

It had also become logistically inefficient.

"The site over there was several little sheds. We had a shed here and would have to bring B doubles here to unload them because we couldn't over there, " he said.

"I was spending a lot of time ferrying things back and forth."

E.E Muir & Sons are well known in Penola for servicing the horticulture, viticulture and forestry industries but Mr Hetherington says the new store in Ellen Street which has a massive warehouse, expansive new offices and a modern show floor will give them room to grow the sales of high quality fertilisers to broad acre farmers in the region.

"Although we also supply a lot of fertiliser to broad acre farmers we are not known for it but we want to be and will look to employ a broad acre agronomist in the near future," he said.

Another emerging area for the Penola branch is livestock production with Lauren Moore joining the team of staff, which now total seven, last year.

Among the services she offers are faecal egg counts for flocks to help producers make decisions on the type and timing of their drenches.

"We would like to double the turnover in the next five years and we want to be known in Penola as the place to call into for everything you need on farm," Mr Hetherington said.

Now close to a century old, E.E Muir & Sons' first store was opened at Victoria market at Laverton by Eric Muir providing seed and other basic fertilisers to market growers.

It has a nation wide footprint of 46 branches across Australia, including six in SA: Renmark, Virginia, Murray Bridge, McLaren Vale, Penola and Adelaide.

The company has owned the Penola site since 2005 when a small shed was erected on it and it became a sub branch of the now closed Naracoorte branch.

E.E Muir & Sons sales and marketing manager Will Gordon says the fourth generation of the Muirs are already thinking about its next 100 years.

He says far more than a traditional farm services business the company has a focus on innovative technology and sustainability.

For about 30 years they have been selling beneficial insects and mites to customers but Mr Gordon says they bought Qld based Natural Solutions, a company which breeds the insects, a couple of years ago.

"During COVID we started another sustainable crop protection business Agreva , it has been developing and is a different take on that sustainability space bringing in pheromones and other biological products to help manage pest and disease and also support soil health," he said.

Mr Gordon can also see a lot of potential for broad acre farmers to switch to using high quality fertilisers.

"There is a lot of pressure on growers around emissions and some of these products will really help because you get a lot more bang for your buck," he said.

E.E Muir & Sons chairman Ian Muir says he was thrilled with the build by Blackbird Industries from Millicent who delivered the project on budget and in less than a year.

Mr Muir -who is the grandson of the founder- says the family's successful growth strategy has been to target productive, reliable areas of Australia, with rainfall or irrigation and considers the Limestone Coast one of the most productive with both.

"There are a lot of good family owned enterprises too which suits Muir's focus, we of course deal with many corporate businesses but we understand family businesses," he said.

Mr Muir puts the company's success down to being trustworthy in business, being adept at making the most of opportunities that have opened up and most importantly having good staff.

"Our focus is to help our customers make the most money, if they are doing well we will be doing okay as well," he said.