Moocalls the shots over birthing cows
According to company co-founder and chief executive Emmet Savage, this product is unique in that it works by monitoring the movement of a cow’s tail in order to predict when labour is imminent. He says it is over 95% accurate, as well as being less expensive than rival hi-tech devices.
“The closest to our product is an internal probe which costs €4,000 and there are others which monitor temperature which cost over €1,000,” says Mr Savage.
The Moocall sensor was launched at the National Ploughing Championships last September with an introductory price of €299. “We had an excellent response and pre-sold our first 1,000 units which were delivered to customers in the second week of December,” says Mr Savage.
The next step is to devise a strategy to develop global sales. Moocall’s founders believe there are huge opportunities in Europe and countries such as Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, and the US.
Since September, it has been selling directly from its office in Mount St, Dublin, and through its website. Mr Savage estimates that it has now sold around 2,000 units in Ireland. “Through the website, we have sold a couple of hundred units in the UK and we have also had a small number of sales in France, Holland, Sweden, and Germany,” he says.
Identified as a High Potential Start-Up by Enterprise Ireland last year, Moocall has been allocated an investment of €250,000, which will be used to scale-up sales and develop export markets.
The idea for the calving alert device came from Niall Austin, one of the company’s three founders. He was the one who made the observation, four years ago, that there was an increased movement in a cow’s tail prior to giving birth.
Mr Austin got financial backing from Mr Savage and Michael Stanley, an investor who previously backed several start-ups and who is now the company chairman. The next step was to commission Motech to develop the software and design consultancy company Dolmen to produce the hardware design.
“It has been a process of ongoing testing for the last four years,” says Mr Savage. “The majority of the tests were carried out on cows in Ireland but we also did some testing in the UK.”
Moocall was registered in 2012 and in 2014, Michael Smurfit and the Irish Farmers’ Trust, publisher of the Irish Farmers Journal, invested in the company. Last year, Moocall founded a company to make the sensor product under contract.
At the time of the launch, Mr Savage began working full-time with the company, which also employed three staff, mainly for sales.
Having sold the first sensors, priced at €299 with a year’s free support services, Moocall is set to increase this to €450, including support service for a year. Looking at developing sales, the company is considering building up a global network of distributors. It plans to start selling into Europe this year.
“In developing sales in Ireland, we have done some digital marketing but have found that word of mouth has been very good for business,’’ says Mr Savage, adding that sales have also been boosted by a number of awards, including a Grand Prix award at the Irish Design Institute Awards at the end of last year.
Moocall has set itself the target of selling 5,000 devices by the end of this year, but Mr Savage believes sales could be higher if the network of distributors gets up and running. Immediate plans include finding larger premises from which to grow the business and to employ an additional five people.
www.moocallsensors.com
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