Avant Dealer Awards 2025

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Avant Dealer Awards 2025: The 2025 Avant Tecno Dealer Awards brought together the top-performing dealers and sales teams from across the UK to celebrate their outstanding achievements.

Hosted at the All Saints Hotel in Bury St Edmunds, the event highlighted the pivotal role that dealers play in Avant Tecno UK’s continued growth and success.

Avant Dealer Awards 2025

Avant Dealer Awards 2025

The Awards followed an exciting day where dealers were given an exclusive tour of Avant Tecno UK’s brand-new headquarters in Bury St Edmunds, offering a glimpse into the company’s ambitious future.

The newly opened Avant HQ is a testament to the company’s forward-thinking approach. Designed to enhance operations, the state-of-the-art, 32,200 sq ft facility boasts modern offices, a spacious showroom, dedicated training spaces, an advanced warehouse, and a cutting-edge technical workshop.

The evening Awards ceremony was a celebration of the hard work, dedication, and achievements of Avant’s dealers over the past year. This year’s winners showcased remarkable success across various categories:

  • Dealer of the Year: Essener Equipment
  • Recognition Award: Coppards
  • Most Machines Sold: Essener Equipment
  • Sales Competition Winner: Chris Slane, Essener Equipment
  • Best Newcomer Award: Lister Wilder
  • Marketing Award: Global
  • After Sales Support: Avant Southeast Ltd
  • Leguan Dealer of the Year: Coppards
  • Best Newcomer of the Year Award: DM Forklifts
  • Leguan Sales Person of the Year: Francisco Wingrove

Essener Equipment stood out as a top performer, earning both Dealer of the Year and Most Machines Sold, while their Managing Director Chris Slane secured the Sales Competition Winner title. Coppards also made a significant impact, winning the Recognition Award and Leguan Dealer of the Year.

Avant Tecno UK Managing Director Raimo Ala-Korpi emphasised the importance of Avant’s dealer network. “Our dealers are more than just partners,” he said. “Their expertise, dedication, and passion for our products are what enable us to grow and deliver exceptional value to our customers. These awards are a way of acknowledging their tremendous efforts.”

For more information, please visit www.avanttecno.com/uk

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Lister Wilder win the treble at Baroness dealer awards!

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Lister Wilder win the treble at Baroness dealer awards!: After a record-breaking year of growth and success, Baroness UK celebrated achievements at BTME 2025 with the return of their annual dealer awards.

For the first time, the three categories of Highest Overall Machinery Sales, Highest Growth in Machinery Sales and Salesperson of the Year we’re all won by the team at Lister Wilder!

Lister Wilder win the treble at Baroness dealer awards!

Lister Wilder win the treble at Baroness dealer awards!

The Baroness UK dealer awards were introduced to recognise the outstanding individual and team efforts across the nationwide network. While it’s fair to say that 2024 presented its share of challenges, it was Lister Wilder who emerged as the winners of all three categories – achieving the treble and clean-sweep for the very first time. Alongside the team awards for overall sales and highest growth in machinery sales, the individual ‘Salesperson of the Year’ award was presented to Lister Wilder’s David Gray.

“It was a huge surprise, and an incredible honour to find out we’d scooped all three awards” comments Phill Hughes, Sales Director for Lister Wilder. “I am especially pleased for David Gray who has championed Baroness and shown his total dedication to our golf customers over the last twelve months. This recognition goes some way to reward him for all the hard work he’s put in. Of course, we couldn’t achieve what we have without the support of Team Baroness and our aftersales departments, so we’d like to thank them all as we look ahead to another positive year.”

“All of our dealers have put in an incredible effort throughout 2024 and it becoming our best year yet would simply not have been possible without the unwavering commitment of our entire network” adds Baroness UK Sales Director Adam Butler. “We continue to strive for the very best equipment matched by world-leading backup, and we’re getting there year-on-year. The whole team at Baroness UK extend huge congratulations to David and the Lister Wilder team and thank all of our dealers and customers for their unwavering and ongoing support.”

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GroundsFest: Proud to Sponsor the LBEL Awards 2024

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GroundsFest: Proud to Sponsor the LBEL Awards 2024: GroundsFest was honoured to once again sponsor the Sports Turf and Greenkeeping category at the prestigious Land-Based and Environment Learner of the Year Awards 2024, held on Thursday, 21 November, at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham.

This marks the second consecutive year that GroundsFest has supported this vital initiative, showcasing its commitment to inspiring the future of the industry.

GroundsFest: Proud to Sponsor the LBEL Awards 2024

GroundsFest: Proud to Sponsor the LBEL Awards 2024

This year, the category celebrated the exceptional achievements of Craig Jordan, who was named Apprentice of the Year, and Matthew Tofts, the FE Learner of the Year. Both winners demonstrated extraordinary dedication and talent in their respective fields, exemplifying the promise of the next generation of land-based professionals.

Event Director Christopher Bassett shared his thoughts on the event, which is a collaborative effort between Landex and Lantra:

“GroundsFest is always looking to support initiatives that elevate the industry’s educational landscape. By championing awards like these, we hope to inspire the next generation of talent and highlight the incredible opportunities within the land-based and environmental sectors.”

GroundsFest’s sponsorship reflects its dedication to encouraging innovation, growth, and learning within the grounds care and landscaping industries.

“Congratulations to all the winners and finalists—your achievements shine a light on the future of this vital sector!” added Christopher.

For more information, please visit www.groundsfest.com

You can also follow GroundsFest on X, Facebook and Instagram @GroundsFest for much more news, reviews and insightful views.

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Beccles Town win FA award

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Beccles Town win FA award: Beccles Town Football Club has won the Ransomes Jacobsen sponsored Suffolk FA Groundsman of the Year competition for the second consecutive season.

The competition, which is open to clubs who play in Step 7 and below in Suffolk, has been sponsored by Ransomes Jacobsen for many years and has played an important role in raising the quality of football pitches in the county.

Beccles Town win FA award

Beccles Town win FA award

After entering for the first time last year and being placed first, Beccles’ joint groundsmen Chris Brown and Shaun Soloman were again judged as this year’s winners. They just beat Adrian Waters of Halesworth Town, who entered for the first time, to this year’s title with Tony Adams of Claydon FC finishing third.

Beccles Town joint groundsman Shaun Soloman said: “This just makes it all worthwhile. We don’t do it to get recognition but for the town and the people of the town and especially the kids to be able to play on a decent pitch that we never had the chance to do as it used to be a mud bath.”

The judging panel was led by Ipswich Town Football Club head groundsman, Ben Connell, and he was accompanied by Suffolk FA football development manager Jodie Allard, Institute of Groundsmen pitch advisor east, Phil Jeggo, Tim Parker of Suffolk FA Pitch Improvement Programme sponsors Parkers Pitches and Steve Alabaster, regional sales manager for Ransomes Jacobsen.

This year’s competition was one of the hardest to judge with the quality of pitches rising in Suffolk, and lead judge, Ben Connell, has been pleased to see the initiatives from different parties having an impact.

“I’ve been taking part in the judging for seven years, and the standards are getting better and better. I’ve seen the pitches improve over that time and I’d put that down to the dedication of the groundsmen and the support and advice they get from the Suffolk FA and the IOG.

“This competition has been a great initiative, and along with the funding from the FA and IOG, it has really made a difference to grassroots football in Suffolk because the pitches are getting better. Without the sponsorship of the competition from Ransomes Jacobsen and the support from the FA and IOG, we wouldn’t have got to this point, and I’m looking forward to seeing further progress.”

Steve Alabaster from Ransomes Jacobsen added: “I’m quite taken aback and astounded by how much work the volunteers put in, especially when they have to finance a majority of the work themselves. Some of these guys have hardly got anything at all, and they’re producing fantastic surfaces for kids and adults to play on. I was really surprised that every pitch we saw wasn’t waterlogged because of the heavy rain we’ve had, and it is incredible that they’re doing that with such little resources – each pitch we’ve seen is a credit to the groundsmen who maintain them.

“It’s fantastic to be able to big up these guys because they don’t always get much recognition and it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to partner and support the Suffolk FA. It’s something we’ve been doing for a number of years that we’re very proud to be part of.”

In addition to being crowned as Groundsman of the Year, Beccles Town will receive £200 to be spent on groundscare equipment, with Halesworth Town receiving £100 and Claydon £50. All three clubs will be invited to attend the Suffolk FA Awards Ceremony later in the year to receive their prizes.

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Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

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Nurture Landscapes win BALI award: It’s a nurturing hand that sees Nurture Landscapes win its fourth Grounds Maintenance Limited Public Access award at the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) National Landscape Awards.

The award, which is sponsored by Toro and Reesink Turfcare, the exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland for Toro groundscare machinery, recognises all sorts of grounds maintenance, and the project that won is not only a vertical space in the form of one of Europe’s largest living walls but has the added challenge of being alongside the Metro viaduct wall next to Snow Hill Station in Birmingham making access somewhat tricky!

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Nurture Landscapes win BALI award

Matt Monckton, regional manager at Nurture Landscapes, says: “This site is incredibly challenging with the green wall running just a few metres adjacent to the Metro line. Our planned overhaul visits can only be carried out in the small hours when the live lines are powered down which happens on just two weekends a year and we have to bring in free-standing artificial lights, which in itself is a major task.”

At 220m long and 7m high with 604m2 of plants, it’s an eye-catching feature. As well as plants, the living wall incorporates decorative perforated aluminium panels designed to capture artificial and natural daylight. Programmable uplighters bring the wall to life at night and create constantly changing patterns and the illusion of depth and movement.

Matt continues: “The whole feature has moisture sensors built into the green wall which are internet connected and alert us quickly to any irrigation issues across the face of the whole wall. In the evening a cutting-edge LED lighting system operates to create waves of coloured lights across the wall which, when combined with the interspersed, undulating perforated steel panels really does make for a unique flowing green space.”

So what does Matt attribute the company’s continuing success to in the awards which in 2019 had record entries, record first-time entries and record international entries and makes receiving one even more of an achievement? “Where we can we try and partner with our clients and this site is a case in point,” he says. “We have built up a wonderful working relationship with the building management team who take a genuine interest in making this location a vibrant local landmark.”

It’s for all these reasons and the fact that Nurture Landscapes achieves great and beautiful results, that makes it a worthy winner of the award, says Reesink’s Alastair Rowell, who presented the award to the company in front of an audience of over 1000 BALI members and guests at the 43rd annual awards: “It’s a fantastic feat of grounds maintenance skill that Nurture Landscapes not only win this award, but win it for the fourth time. It’s grounds maintenance that creates a work of art and provides pleasure to so many commuters as well as being progressive and cutting-edge in its execution too.”

Paul Bean, sales director at Nurture Landscapes, says: “To be recognised again is testament to the enthusiasm, passion and skill of our teams. We invest in training our people well and creating strong business-to-business relationships. This award reinforces we’re doing the right thing and we’re generating the kind of success we’d always hoped for.”

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