GGM And Kubota Celebrate 40 Year Partnership

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Exciting celebration event marks new Kubota coverage across the North West.

Leading groundcare machinery specialist Gibson’s Garden Machinery Ltd, have officially opened a new North West depot, as it celebrates a 40 year partnership with top manufacturer Kubota.

The new depot will allow GGM to increase their Kubota area coverage and expand their operations across the North West to include Greater Manchester, Merseyside, West Lancashire and Cheshire while operating out of a new state of the art premises in Haydock, located just off the M6.

The depot was officially opened at a prestigious event last week, which was attended by customers from right across the new region. The event also saw the unveiling of a north-west themed mural, to recognize GGMs roots.

GGM and Kubota’s long standing partnership originally joined forces in 1976 when Michael Gibson purchased a horticultural dealer business at Highgate near Kirkham in Lancashire.

Over the last 40 years, the relationship between the two companies has gone from strength to strength. This has been based on GGM’s commitment to provide its customers across the North West and Yorkshire with high performance solutions, backed up by first class service and aftersales support, which gives the business an enviable reputation in the groundcare market with professionals.

Commenting on the 40 year partnership and the launch event, current Managing Director of GGM Chris Gibson said:

“The Haydock depot launch event was a huge success and it was fantastic to celebrate with customers old and new. Everyone who came along had a great time and we were thrilled to showcase our new premises.

At GGM we are immensely proud of our long standing relationship with Kubota and it is quite fitting that as we celebrate our 40th year of partnership, we are expanding our offering across a new area.

It’s hard to believe it’s over 40 years since my father Michael Gibson became the first dealer to sign up with Kubota and the compact tractor business in the UK was born when he sold his first Kubota B6000.

Kubota has long been a major part of our business and the expansion of our operations into this new area in the North West is a vital part of that process and an exciting opportunity for the future.”

Adrian Langmead, Business Development Manager for Kubota’s Groundcare Division, concluded: “We pride ourselves on the strength of our dealer network. Gibson’s Garden Machinery Ltd is an extremely capable and established partner for Kubota so we are delighted to have announced the expansion of their operations into this new area and our 40 year partnership will continue for many years to come. The longevity of GGM and the fact that it has progressively grown its operation over the years is a good example of a dealer and manufacturer working hand in hand to the benefit of its customers.
This was a fantastic launch platform and enjoyed by all.

Visit www.kubota.co.uk to find out about the company’s wide range of tractor and groundcare solutions.

Winning Combination For Brickendon Grange

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Team effort by manufacturer, dealer and distributor

Brickendon Grange, near Hertford, has been a loyal Toro customer for over 30 years and the club’s latest machinery investment is a reflection of not only the machines’ enduring quality and efficiency, but of the “added extras” that come with working with Toro distributor Reesink Turfcare and local Toro dealer Oliver LandPower.

Head greenkeeper Simon Woolley explains: “Whenever we need new machinery we road-test a range of brands and while we are always most impressed with Toro, there are other things to consider, such as the dealership we work with and the parts support the distributor offers.

“Working with Oliver LandPower and Reesink Turfcare makes a difference to us and clinched the deal. The service, especially when we need new parts, is excellent. It is a great team to work with, they are very approachable and understanding towards our needs and wants.”

Simon explains why he and his greenkeeping team of six chose the machines they did this time round. Chosen for its claim of efficiency and productivity a seven deck Groundsmaster 4700-D was brought in and Simon confirms it is more than living up to expectations.

“We had one less in the team last year, which equated to us being 40 man-hours a week down. This change in circumstance played a big part in our machinery choices, especially when it came to the GM4700-D. Instead of opting for a five deck, we chose the seven deck and this simple decision has saved us a day and a half a week to perform the same work, thanks to its ability to be more productive.”

Simon’s two other machinery choices of the Reelmaster TriFlex 3420 and Reelmaster 5010-H have been made to help improve the club’s operating costs. “This is a conscious decision the club has made to be more efficient and we are seeing consistent and regular savings in terms of fuel consumption. It’s also good to know that by making a ‘green’ choice brings with it the added benefit of no hydraulic leaks or risk of oil on the greens, too!”

Set in 160 acres of rolling Hertfordshire countryside, Brickendon Grange has recently seen its 17th hole voted the Greatest Amateur Hole in the UK in the 2016 Grass Roots Golf competition. Simon says: “It was a real coup to win this accolade, set as it was against nine of Britain’s most challenging golf holes. Our 17th hole was deemed the best by the public and impressed an independent judging panel. We consider all our holes to be equal and hope to see the limelight shared between the other 17 holes in years going forward!”

And with such a strong team behind the ‘ace of Herts’, as it is nicknamed, we have no doubt this is entirely possible!

Learn more about the products included in this story by visiting http://www.reesinkturfcare.co.uk

Increasing Awareness

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At its conference last October, the Amenity Forum launched its GetMoving campaign. This seeks to improve awareness of how important and essential weed, pest and disease management is for maintaining safe, healthy and fit for purpose amenity spaces. It impacts upon every UK citizen in all their daily lives. The first stage was development of infographic and edugraphic materials together with short video clips across a range of amenity situations.

Such material continues to be developed and now a website has been developed brining to life a British family on which the materials have been modelled around. Jim and Lynne and their children learn about the world of amenity and the impact on their lives. Jim also now has his own twitter account: @JimColins75, email accounts, Facebook page: @Getbritainmoving and will soon develop a blog. Jim will always have a view and seek to pick up on topical debate and issues surrounding amenity. Take a look at the website www.getbritainmoving.uk

It is hoped that everyone can get engaged and help improve understanding of amenity and why it matters. To many it still remains very much a given that the trains and buses will run, pavements will be cleaned, sports pitches are of a high standard etc. Through development of GetMoving, the Forum seek to achieve greater awareness and understanding.

For further information, please contact the Forum admin@amenityforum.net

Sweden Gets First Taste of SISGrass

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Sweden has had its first taste of the revolutionary SISGrass hybrid system following the turfing of the Gamla Ullevi football stadium in Gothenburg. Premier Pitches removed the pitch and SIS installed the turf in two days.

Despite the inclement weather, the laser-guided installation was completed for handover in just eight days this March, and now puts the Gamla Ullevi Stadium firmly on the map and amongst good company on the international stage with the patented technology.

The stadium, which is used by local teams GAIS, IFK Göteburg and Örgryte IS, is also the home of the Sweden women’s team, ranked eighth in the world.

SISGrass Director, Ivo Lamot, said; “We are delighted to install our first SISGrass pitch in Sweden at the Gamla Ullevi Stadium.

“As a municipal stadium home to three football clubs, it was important to install a turf system that could cope with the demands of more regular matches and deliver the playing hours required whilst maintaining world class consistency.

“SISGrass provides them with an outstanding natural pitch surface with the added resilience and endurance courtesy of our revolutionary stitching process and high quality yarn.”

The SISGrass team were confronted with snow and freezing pitch conditions in Gothenburg but found a solution utilising the ground the pitch cover and under soil heating to deliver the conditions required to stitch the advanced reinforced turf system.

Andy Cole, from iTurf Management who oversaw the project, commented; “From start to finish the SIS Pitches team were outstanding.

“We faced some tough challenges that could have easily resulted in delays to the pitch installation but their knowledge of pitch care and construction and ability to solve problems meant that we delivered on time and went over and above the expectations of the client.”
SISGrass is an advanced reinforced turf system featuring patented fibre injections, which offers increased pitch stability and delivers considerably more playing hours than natural grass surfaces.

SISGrass has also been installed at the training grounds of Chelsea, A.F.C Bournemouth, Hull City, Fulham, Derby County, Athletic Bilbao, FC Barcelona and the National Football Centre at St George’s Park, home of the English FA.

SIS Pitches has many years of experience in delivering natural turf pitches and synthetic turf pitches to some of the greatest names in sport as well as to schools, colleges, universities, sports clubs and local authorities. SIS Pitches has offices in the UK, Ireland, Russia, Turkey, Holland, Middle East and Angola.

Ventrac Goes on Tour

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Price Turfcare, the newly established business founded by Ransomes Jacobsen’s former International Sales Director, Rupert Price, has been promoting the product with a series of demonstration tours in the South East of England and across the Midlands.

The first venue was at a private school south of the Thames, followed quickly by a trip up the M1 motorway to three venues in the Midlands, including a well-known football club and a couple of prestigious golf courses.

“We had a great road trip,” said Rupert Price. “The demonstration at the training ground of the football club went extremely well. The weather was awful; it was very wet, the banks around the training pitches really quite steep and there was standing water at the base of the banks.

“However, the Ventrac showed what a good machine it is; it mowed the steep grass banks and didn’t leave any tracks, despite the atrocious conditions. I don’t think a conventional machine would have gone near those slopes.

“The golf courses were equally impressed, especially with the versatility of the machine. We demonstrated the out-front rotary deck and the contour mowing deck; both did a great job with the contour deck showing how it coped with bunker edges and slopes.

“There was a lot of positivity around the product and I’m reasonably confident that we’ll achieve a couple of sales from the trip.”

The Steiner family has always been about the business of making life simpler through practical engineering, design ingenuity and good old-fashioned common sense. Those early values passed on by the founder, Marvin Steiner continues to be the driving force that pushes the company to design and manufacture the highest quality equipment available, surpassing the needs of our ever-changing world. In 1998 his sons introduced the brand name VENTRAC and the Steiner brothers focused their energies on the new “next generation” all-wheel-drive compact tractor.

Ventrac’s versatility offers over 30 different attachments and combined with their patented Mount System (which takes less than a minute to attach or detach attachments) provides a compact power pack with maximum performance and versatility for many different sectors within the groundscare industry.