Defying the odds
Scott MacCallum catches up with Andrew Fox, whose cylinder mowers have been gracing cricket pitches and bowling greens for the past decade.
Defying the odds
Through time the concept of the little guy beating the big guy has always been a romantic notion.
But think about it. If Goliath hadn’t taken one in the eye from David, would we ever have heard of either of them?
Would we then ever have had a decent analogy to make for the little man overcoming the odds and triumphing over a giant? I can’t think of one.
Through time the concept of the little guy beating the big guy has always been a romantic notion. But think about it. If Goliath hadn’t taken one in the eye from David and, instead, given him a good thumping, would we ever have heard of either of them?
Would we then ever have had a decent analogy to make for the little man overcoming the odds and triumphing over a giant? I can’t think of one.
Except there is Andrew Fox, who has been defying the odds for a decade now. He’s been building cylinder mowers which more than hold their own when matched against any of those built by the bigger manufacturers in the industry.
Andrew is a keen cricketer and volunteer groundsman of 40 years standing when, a new chapter in his professional life was due to begin and he found that he had time on his hands to indulge his passion.
It had actually started in 1984, at the age of 11 at the family home in Somerset, when Andrew dismantled a brand new Atco 20 inch cylinder mower, reassembled it and then went on to cut a cricket wicket on the front lawn.
The hobby carried on through adult life. “I would take old Atco cylinder mowers, refurbish, improve then sell them on to cash stricken cricket clubs, making just a few bob,” recalled Andrew.
All the time he was gaining an appreciation of the work that goes into building a quality cylinder mower and, more importantly, where he felt improvements could be made to what is one of the most recognisable of all every day inventions.
It led him to a decision to start building his own mowers, and over last 10 years Fox Cylinder Mowers has built a quantity, each individually numbered, and gracing cricket pitches and bowling greens for as far afield as Glasgow and Northern Ireland.
With an attention to detail and a no comprise attitude to quality Andrew began from the back of his garage, a facility which has only recently been replaced by custom built workshop, twice the size of the original.
While you often hear of the advantages of economies of scale, which often are the undoing of the “little guy”, Andrew has found that the opposite can be the case and it is interesting to listen to him when talking about a product used to secure the cylinder.
“It’s basically a grip nut which holds the cylinder at its level and I wanted to improve the quality. So I researched a replacement and I am now using what’s known as a Aero Nut, which is used in the aviation industry by NASA and Boeing. “It’s designed in a completely different way to a regular nut and is used in areas of extreme vibration or heat.
“I’ve now adopted it and use it in two areas on the machine,” explained Andrew.
Defying the odds
And so to the bit about being the antidote to economies of scale.
“It’s a minuscule increase in cost. Instead of being around 20p for the regular nut, it’s £1.20,” he said.
Now to Andrew that doesn’t represent a huge rise in his costs, but to a larger company they would see a nut costing six times more and many would be looking to swap a more expensive unit for a cheaper one rather than the reverse.
“What you are getting is something which in not only considerably more reliable but will also last at least 10 times longer. That’s great for clubs as many are volunteer-run where reliability is paramount.
Having reached his 10 year milestone Andrew, is now assisted in the workshop by fellow cricketer and lifelong friend Andrew “Cookie” Cook and together they produce a good number of machines every year.
With the more recently added Verticutter, there is now a range of six models – two levels of petrol mowers – the higher-end Black Edition and the entry Green Edition – plus a Black electric battery version of the mower.
The verticutter is something about which Andrew is particularly proud. “It is genuinely revolutionary and market leading. The Verticutter is brush assisted has blades which are only ten millimeters apart, against the industry standard of 12 to 15 millimeters.
“In conjunction with a 100 year old brush manufacturer from England, we designed spacers complete with brush clusters. What these do is sit just in front of the blade and protrude slightly, so that they aid the verticutting by lifting the lateral grass, a nanosecond before the cutter.
“It’s just absolutely phenomenal,” said Andrew, who also uses two millimeter stainless steel discs which do not bend.
“To give you some idea, the number of bristles in each cluster on each spacer, multiplied across the reel and multiplied again by the rpm result in 400,000 brush strokes a second,” said Andrew, proving without a shadow of a doubt, that British ingenuity, whether that be in the form of an eccentric inventor or otherwise, is alive and kicking.
When I spoke with Andrew a few years ago he told me that he personally serviced every one of his mowers, and not only that, he would collect them, take them back to the workshop before delivering them back to their owners.
He couldn’t possibly still be doing that, could he?
“I still hand deliver each new machine and demonstrate it, irrespective of where it is in the UK, but I have now bought a van and employ a part- timer to collect them.
The procedure is that I encourage everybody to book in a service by the end of September and then we look at the logistics and the most effective way of collecting a batch of mowers at the same time.
“Our claim is that we return them in ‘as new’ condition – it’s not just a change of oil and a wipe over with an oily rag. We go through them with a fine tooth comb.”
Fox Mowers have always used Honda engines on his Black Edition machines and Andrew is a huge Honda fan.
“Honda engines are just fantastically engineered. They are superb. As soon as you confirm we use a Honda engine, people immediately take you seriously.
“So I turned to Honda when I decided to produce an electric mower,” said Andrew. “I spoke to them about it and they had an They had an electric package -electric motor, battery and charger – that is fantastically engineered.”
But Andrew had a small concern. “The Head of Engines and the Head of Sales said that they wanted to come down and visit me. I said that was fine, but pointed out that they’d be coming to my house, and this was before the new workshop had been built. They said not to worry as they liked to work with people with my drive, enthusiasm and commitment.”
As it turned out Andrew’s home comforts proved to the liking of the two high flying Honda executives.
“They came down and we got on very well. We bolted the electric motor onto a machine, went out and tested it on the cricket pitch. They then took measurements for vibration and noise etc. and sent it off to the European Honda engine headquarters, in Belgium.
“It came back approved. So now it’s a Honda approved machine and carries Honda’s two year warranty!”
A decade on, every one of the Fox machines is still in existence and working well.
“Number one is just outside Yeovil and I’ve told them that when they want to sell it I am buying it back!”
Andrew has no desire to build the company any bigger than he has. His production line will remain himself and “Cookie” and he enjoys his life, happy being the little guy working alongside the Goliaths.
