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As is the case in many instances of the beginnings of a business, Horsley Wholesale began out of necessity.
Sam and Meagan Quattromani were chasing supplies for their farm, as well as gear for their relatives' farms.
They found significant variances in prices from one shop to another and wanted to find a store with better value across the board.
Sam and Meagan couldn't find one and in 2003, they decided to provide this service and Horsley Wholesale was formed.
"We wanted to offer farmers a place to go and just know they were getting the best prices without having to do the leg work that we had done," Meagan said.
"We closed the huge gap where farmers buy everything at retail and sell their goods at wholesale and we offered better prices and maintained the high level of service they were used to.
"We also found many useful items hard to come by and that innovation in small farming equipment had kind of stalled.
"So we started innovating and sourcing products that were under-rated and highly useful and we took to specialising in those things as well as bringing more and simpler options to any sized enterprise."
Horsley Wholesale were among the first rural stores to go onlin, which was a bold move.
Supplying an industry where 'tyre-kicking' is part of the buying process, the Quattromanis worked tirelessly to earn the confidence of buyers in the rural market.
"We wanted buyers to go online and know they were in safe hands," Meagan said.
"We did this by stocking reputable and quality brands, supplying excellent service and offering a safe and secure buying platform for our buyers with money back guarantees and many forms of contact.
"We made ourselves more accessible to our customers as well.
"We travelled to field days all across the country and put a face to our name, showing our customers that we were a family business and that we were real people with high quality products at the right price and not some scammer.
"When we started, the challenge was there was absolutely no confidence in the rural and farming industry in online sellers on any side of the fence.
"We had to work extremely hard to get suppliers on board as they did not believe in anything other that 'bricks and mortar' stores and had no faith in the online market.
"But we didn't give up because we knew we had a great deal to offer our customers with this new way of doing things.
"Before long, we started out selling most of the bricks and mortar stores and we grew in leaps and bounds to the point where our next concern was how we would handle growing pains."
Meagan said despite the success, online selling is not for the faint-hearted, though meeting and exceeding its customers expectations has always been Horsley Wholesale's priority.
However, supply chains and delivery networks add quite a lot of pressure to the job as any online store is so reliant on everything running smoothly.
While it mainly operates out of its Goulburn, NSW, headquarters, Horsley Wholesale has become a fixture at many of the field days in the eastern states with anyone who has visited its site attesting to the true family-operated nature of the business.
"Our whole family is involved in many different ways," Meagan said.
"Our three children Jakob, Jessica and Jasmine, as well as our adopted daughter Brianna, are great at the field days.
"We have a wonderful time and treat the field days as a working family holiday where we meet up with the many close friends we have made along the way.
"The kids help with most other aspects of the business when they can between school.
"We also have two wonderful full-time staff, Amanda and Kynan, who work tirelessly to get the orders out the door efficiently."
True to its original goal, Horsley Wholesale stocks a wide range of products to help make work easier and more efficient on-farm while offering consistent savings.
"We manufacture many innovative specialty items like petrol post drivers of all sizes," Meagan said.
"We make fencing tools like our lifting plate, our Honda-powered earth auger, and our Tight As one-minute wire strainer all manufactured here in Goulburn.
"We supply a lot of traditional fencing equipment as well as electric fence supplies and animal husbandry items.
"We tend to supply the things that we use and believe in and generally if we haven't used it or trust it, we don't sell it."
Not resting on its laurels, Horsley Wholesale has exciting plans for the future.
"We have several projects in the pipeline that will make jobs done day-in and day-out on the land easier," Meagan said.
"As we face challenges on our own farm, we are always looking for safe and more efficient ways to make a difference.
"We still want to continue to keep things simple and personable with our customers.
"We believe that a huge part of our success is that we have always been on our customers' level, giving them a better experience through our understanding."
