Queen’s Award For Allett

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Queen’s Award For Allett: Allett, the Staffordshire based specialist cylinder mower manufacturer, has won the coveted Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2019 in recognition of its growth in exports and contribution to the British economy.

A wholly British-owned company, Allett has designed and manufactured mowers for the sports and premium lawns market for over fifty years. The award marks a major period of development for the company, with ranges of new products launched to meet the needs of strong emerging markets. Allett’s main export success has been achieved with their professional products for sports stadiums and training grounds, achieving increased sales with the USA, Russia, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Spain leading their top ten markets in the past three years.

Queen’s Award For Allett

“We’re very honoured to receive the Queen’s Award,” says Austin Jarrett, Allett’s Managing Director, “it recognises our achievements and team efforts in bringing innovative developments in our mowing systems to meet challenges in overseas markets with large potential. We’re no longer confined to the seasonality of domestic sales cycles in the UK. Our mowers and turf maintenance systems are used throughout the world where they are maintaining sports surfaces and lawns to the highest standards.”

Allett was the major supplier to the host stadiums and contractors in Russia for the 2018 World Cup football tournament. The company concentrates on assisting a World Cup country for a period of three years to help attain the striking light green-dark green stripes in time for the main tournament. Markets with large potential such as the USA offer access to developments for sports such as American football and baseball as well as soccer. South America, where previously they have not had the financial resources, is now a developing market, says the company. Allett has placed its first mowing systems in China where there are great World Cup ambitions.

“The groundsmen in the UK are recognised as being the best in the world and they demand the highest standards from their equipment suppliers,” says Austin. “This demand drives our engineering team to improve and develop our mowing systems which consequently produce world class sports surfaces and garden lawns. We have benefitted from this and we are confident that we can deliver improved standards to the stadiums and lawns using our systems in the rest of the world. This is because of the help we get from our great customers in the UK. Every one of our machines proudly wears a Union Flag decal, and this really helps us in our export markets where the UK is revered for their lawns.

“We will be hosting Pitch Maintenance training seminars in China this year,” adds Austin, “to help set standards and expectations for the playing surfaces in this huge country which is growing rapidly as a footballing nation. Allett is more than just a machine. We’re strengthening our technical support and embarking on a plan of new product development to concentrate on a wider range of grass and sports turf maintenance products.”

Allett recently launched and continue to develop products powered by Lithium-ion battery, with the advantages of zero emissions at the point-of-use, low vibration for the operator and almost no noise. To accommodate the growth of the business Allett recently moved their Hixon, Staffordshire base to a new, larger factory.  The company has an After-Sales team in place to support overseas national distributors and, as export sales grow, consider it is important to maintain the ‘brand value’ which has been a keystone to home market success. Allett say the recognition of achievement the Queen’s Award for Enterprise brings is a proud moment in its history, and one the company can bear as a premium standard into the export markets of the future.

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STRI Group Announce New Honours

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STRI Group Announce New Honours: The STRI Group has announced the addition of a new set of honours for the 2020 Golf Environment Awards (GEAs).

The Home Unions National awards, supported by the governing bodies for amateur golf in the UK, are designed to encourage clubs, just starting their ecological and environmental journey, to enter the GEAs.

STRI Group Announce New Honours

The GEAs have grown considerably in stature over the last few years and are now recognised as a prestigious and integrated award within the industry and at club level. Importantly the GEAs provide a vehicle for the industry and individual clubs to share information, grow their experience and importantly, demonstrate ecological and environmental best practice.

England Golf, Scottish Golf, Wales Golf and Golfing Union of Ireland joined the GEAs in 2018 to help create greater environmental awareness throughout golf. The Home Unions also provide a platform to help clubs grow the game by increasing membership and supporting sustainability at the heart of their communities.

Each Home Union will have its own National award for clubs in their region. Clubs must enter before the closing date of 2 August 2019. Shortlisted finalists will be confirmed in November 2019, and the winners will be announced at the GEAs in Harrogate during BTME week in January 2020.

The Home Unions National awards joins the existing GEA awards – Environmental Golf Course of the Year, Environmental Project of the Year, Conservation Greenkeeper of Year and Operation Pollinator.

Golf Environment Awards founder, Bob Taylor, said: “We wanted to make the GEAs even more accessible to golf clubs, however big or small, across all regions of the UK. Developing a new cluster of awards, with the support of the Home Unions, will hopefully encourage clubs who haven’t entered before to give the awards a try, and to use them as a springboard to aim for the other established GEA awards in the future.”

Steve Isaac, R&A Director of Sustainability, said: “The R&A is delighted that its affiliates in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are engaging with the Golf Environment Awards.  This new category will unearth some fantastic examples of good environmental practices which can be widely shared and adopted by others in the golf industry.”

Iain Lancaster, Club Support Manager at England Golf, said: “England Golf is delighted to be involved with the new Home Unions National Golf Environment Award. This will be a wonderful showcase for remarkable projects undertaken by our affiliated clubs. We hope it will inspire others to put good environmental management into practice.”

Sandy Veale, Golf Coordinator – Wales Golf, said: “Wales Golf is delighted to have been involved in the development of the new of the Home Unions National Award. With so many fantastic examples of good environmental management across Welsh Golf Clubs, which might otherwise have gone unrecognised, this is a fantastic opportunity to give clubs the credit they deserve and spread good practice across the Home Unions.”

Carolyn Hedley, Environment and Sustainability Manager Scottish Golf, said: “Scottish Golf is pleased to continue its support for the Golf Environment Awards in 2019 and we are delighted that the new National Award has been created to encourage more clubs to enter. The GEAs are a great way for clubs to demonstrate their superb environmental practices and projects and we would encourage more Scottish greenkeepers to get involved to get the recognition they deserve.”

Entry for the 2020 GEAs closes on Friday 2 August 2019. Visit golfenvironmentawards.com for more details and to submit your club’s application.

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STRI Scoop Double Award

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STRI Scoop Double Award: STRI Group, the world’s leading sports surface provider, has received two accolades at the prestigious Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland Awards (ALCI), which celebrate exceptional landscape projects.

STRI beat fierce competition to claim the overall winner in the Sportsground category for design and consultancy at Craven Cottage Stadium, home of Premier League side Fulham Football Club, alongside landscape contractor Clive Richardson Ltd. (CRL).

STRI Scoop Double Award From ALCI

STRI and CRL were further honoured by a Special Award for Design and Build Excellence, with STRI senior consultant James Westwood receiving particular mention from the judges for his design and project managing the build process on a challenging site.

Commenting on the award win, James said: “We are thrilled to have been recognised for our consultancy and design services during the reconstruction of Fulham’s pitch.

“Craven Cottage is a small, compact stadium with limited access to the site. However, working alongside CRL, we overcame these issues and successfully removed the existing Fibrelastic pitch and installed a state-of-the-art stitched hybrid turf reinforcement system.

“Such was the success of the pitch reconstruction; we were also able to recycle the heating pipes which usually end up at landfill. We are very proud of what has been achieved, and it is fantastic to have been honoured twice by the ALCI.”

Interested in speaking to STRI about landscaping and sports surface planning? Contact enquiries@strigroup.com or call +44 (0) 1274 565131 for information.

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Pitch Award For Nowlan Park

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Pitch Award For Nowlan Park: Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, has received their 2018 GAA County Pitch of the Year Award, sponsored by Campey Turf Care Systems.

As part of their prize the grounds team at Nowlan Park will receive a specially commissioned award and pitch supplies from Campey and fellow sponsors Irish Turfcare and ICL.

Pitch Award For Nowlan Park

The Kilkenny city venue was chosen in August 2018 after a thorough adjudication process, with McGovern Park, South Ruislip in London announced as the runner-up.

Other venues including Dr Hyde Park, Roscommon, Semple Stadium, Tipperary, Innovate Wexford Park, Wexford and Netwatch Cullen Park, Carlow were shortlisted as high achievers in the competition for excellence in playing surfaces.

Assessment of the grounds nationwide was completed by Stuart Wilson, Pitch Manager at Croke Park and the GAA National Games Development Centre, and by Dr Stephen Barker of the Sports Research Institute, who visited all six venues.

The process involved scoring and feedback from referees during the National Leagues in spring and took into consideration a Pitch Quality Assessment based on performance standards, construction, management program, environmental conditions and usage levels.

The awards scheme is part of a wider initiative to improve the standards of playing surfaces around the country and to share some of the expertise and experience used at Croke Park and from the GAA’s National Pitch Committee.

Commenting on the scheme and the results, GAA President John Horan said: “I would like to congratulate all the team who are responsible for the pitch in Nowlan Park on winning this award. It’s a pitch that gets more than its fair share of important, high profile matches and thanks to the time, dedication and investment, there is a surface there worthy of the great occasions hosted by Nowlan Park.

“This is an important scheme for the GAA to champion and I want to thank Stuart Wilson and also the National Pitch Committee for setting standards and encouraging our ground staff around the country to ensure that our pitches are in the best possible condition for our great Games.”

Campey continues to place a high priority on recognising excellence within the professional turf care industry as well as conducting regular educational days for everyone from volunteers to full-time turf professionals.

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Otterbine Reveal Contractor Award Winner

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Otterbine Reveal Contractor Award Winner: Water Garden Ltd, a family business based in Portsmouth, have been crowned winners of the has won the prestigious 2018 Reesink Turfcare UK Otterbine Contractor of the Year award.

The company achieved the highest Otterbine sales figures for 2018 thanks to their knowledge of the product, belief in the brand and support from Otterbine and its UK distributor Reesink Turfcare.

Otterbine Reveal Contractor Award Winner

Andy Staves, managing director of Water Garden Ltd, explains: “We were delighted to hear we’d won the award as the whole team has been working really hard this last year. We pride ourselves on having an expert group of staff who have a deep technical understanding of all the products we deal with. Customers can trust we know what we’re talking about and having quality products to back that up is vital.

“We don’t deal with the cheap and cheerful, we want the best, which is why Otterbine is the principle supplier for our aerating fountains,” he says. “Anything else simply doesn’t come close to the quality they offer.”

Even with such a dedicated sales team, the company can only go so far without the right back up and support from the manufacturer, says Andy: “We have a really close relationship with Reesink and Otterbine, in particular Reg Varney, the international region manager, who’s really helpful. Any issues we’ve had, they’ve been tackled head on without hesitation, and resolved quickly, allowing us to give the best possible service to our customers. It’s imperative we get the support we need, when we need it, and that’s what Otterbine and Reesink provide.”

Water Garden Ltd has recently benefitted from Otterbine water management and product training courses, adding to the company’s extensive knowledge of the brand.

Reesink’s national sales representative for Otterbine, Pete Newton, comments: “Water Garden Ltd is incredibly deserving of this year’s award. It is a delight to work with them and particularly rewarding to work with a company who recognises the importance of quality products and who has expert knowledge in the industry. We hope our close partnership continues for many years to come.”

With such a successful year for the company, it’s hard to reflect upon just one stand out moment says Andy: “We’ve had so many great installations this year, particularly with the larger fountains. We have a lot of customers who want not only quality water aeration but also stunning visual centrepieces for their golf course, private estate or wedding venue. Everyone has been delighted with the results – we haven’t had a single complaint, and we intend to keep it that way.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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