Murray Hire Expands Först Fleet

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Murray Hire Expands Först Fleet: Bristol-based equipment and tool hire business Murray Hire Centres is expanding its long-standing fleet of Först woodchipper machines, after consistently being impressed by the superiority and reliability of the machinery.

Established since 1982, Murray Hire Centres is a close-knit family run business, now employing a total of 15 staff. With 600 account customers, the business has built itself a reputation as the best one-stop shop for equipment and tool hire in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

Murray Hire Expands Först Fleet

Mandy Taylor, Managing Director of Murray Hire Centres, explains why the business has worked closely with Först since its inception and has chosen to maintain the relationship ever since.

“There are numerous factors that make the Först machinery stand out to other machines available on the market”, said Mandy. “We’ve always felt that, paired with the consistent reliability and efficiency of the machines, their smart appearance also makes them far superior against other competitors.”

At present, Murray Hire Centres has two TR6’s, one ST6 and one TR8 machine, with another TR8 currently on order. Ideal for remote locations, the TR6 is a compact and manoeuvrable chipper which comes complete with Först’s unique ForstGrip feed-roller system, allowing for even the toughest forks and limbs to be broken.

Mandy continued: “We have reaped nothing but benefits from having Först machines on our fleet. For the business as a whole, it’s allowed us to offer a full circle of products to our customers. The robust machines have been utilised in a variety of scenarios over time, from general arboriculture work through to site clearances for large company extensions, as well as housing estates.

“Despite it being a rarity to face an issue with the machines, the warranty and after-sales support offered by Först is superb, which really gives us faith in the products and provides us with the assurance we need as a business.”

Going forward, Mandy is confident that the relationship with Först will continue to strengthen.

“Since day one, we have always had a fantastic relationship with Först, and we firmly believe that the machines are the best chippers available on the market.”

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Allett Scores At World Cup Venues

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Allett Scores At World Cup Venues: British manufactured Allett Mowers are the choice of the majority of the FIFA World Cup football venues in Russia. Allett is by far the top selling pedestrian mower brand for the very prestigious competition, supplying a total of over one hundred and eighty-five units of mowers and accessories across eight stadiums and thirteen official training grounds.

The process of taking Britain to Russia and winning the mower business for the World Cup venues started about two years ago when Allett’s Export Sales Manager, Dave Allett, made a series of presentations at two seminars and demonstration days. Allett’s Russian distributor Unisaw followed this up by investing in demonstration machinery and carried out more demonstrations at the stadiums and training grounds. Unisaw are a particularly strong dealer and it was the combination of Allett products and Unisaw’s supply and support that resulted in success.

Allett Scores At World Cup Venues

“I recently participated at a wonderfully well-run and attended seminar in Moscow, all organised by Unisaw” says Dave, “and took the opportunity to present Alexander Markin, the CEO of Unisaw Group, with two awards, one for outstanding sales achievement – Russia was our biggest single export market last year – and the second for service excellence.”

Dave attributes this great British success story to the products being chosen for their ease of use and high performance, which makes them ideal for sports turf surfaces, coupled with the exceptional sales efforts of Unisaw. “We offer a comprehensive solution: high-quality equipment for the care of football fields and constant service support, and our partnership with Allett is a very important part of this. Our company has all the necessary skills and takes great responsibility. We are ready and willing to share this with the stadiums, both before and after the games. Our specialists will work very hard on a special schedule, travelling to the facilities to assist at any time.” Says Alexander Markin, CEO of Unisaw Group. The main mowers supplied to the stadiums and training grounds are the Allett C34, together with cartridge accessories, the Regal 36, Buffalo 34 and RM34 models. The Allett C34, in the Allett professional mower range and powered by the Honda GX200 engine, offers in one machine the capability of performing up to eight different turf tasks. The cartridge head options include a six or eight blade cutting cylinder, powered scarifier, verticutter, brush, sorrel roller, turf rake and scarifier.

The Regal is regarded by groundsmen around the world as the ultimate large area dedicated mower for sports grounds, cricket pitches and other large grass areas. Hydrostatic forward and reverse drive with infinitely variable mowing speeds, power steering and compatibility with an optional trailing seat, combine to make it the prime choice for precision mowing with sharp, defined stripes on the turf.

The RM34 is a rotary stadium mower, which was designed around feedback from stadium groundsmen, with a full width rear roller to produce perfect pitch stripes. The twin contra-rotating blades and high lift system vacuum speedily and efficiently lifting debris, providing busy grounds staff with greater capability in the post match clear up, and for mowing higher when grass is being grown in.

Most of the eight Russian stadiums such as Kaliningrad, Rostov-on-don, Ekaterinburg and Saransk, to name but a few, ordered three Allett C34’s and two Regals each. Sochi Fisht stadium has four Allett C34’s, two Allett Buffalos and four Allett RM34 mowers. The Unisaw supplied training fields took thirty C34’s and fourteen RM34’s between them. In all, a major British export coup for Allett Mowers. 01889 271503 www.allett.co.uk

FIFA World Cup 2018 Stadiums Supplied by Allett Mowers

  • Rostov-on-don
  • Kaliningrad
  • Saransk
  • Ekaterinburg
  • Samara
  • Volgograd
  • Sochi Fisht

For more information, visit: www.allett.co.uk

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Greentech Goes For GKB

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Greentech Goes For GKB: Greentech Sportsturf is one of Scotland’s leading sports turf contractors and specialists in design, construction , renovation and maintenance of sports surfaces. There’s an impressive list of fields of play the company has worked on, including Gleneagles, Hampden Park and Oriam sports performance centre. It follows then there is a need for quality equipment which is right for the job when you’re maintaining sports turf, both natural and synthetic, across Scotland and handling projects throughout the UK and Ireland. Greentech invested in two GKB machines, the Quick Clean and Rotobrush after seeing them at the Saltex exhibition and following demonstrations set up by Tom Shinkins, Operations Manager at GKB.

“We looked at the whole market in synthetic turf cleaners and renovators but in the end it wasn’t hard to choose. The GKB machines are far and away a quality build and do the job they’re designed to do better than the others we tested.” Says Greentech’s Synthetic Turf Manager, Ewan Peddie. Due to the weather conditions Greentech had to wait until early May before being able to start treating synthetic surfaces and the machines have endured a punishing schedule in the catch-up.

Greentech Goes For GKB

The GKB Quick Clean has been noted for its powerful in-depth cleaning of all types of synthetic turf pitches Greentech have been working on. It’s easily hitched and the synthetic turf brush casts infill material and contamination onto a vibrating screen. Coarse dirt is removed to a collection container while dust and other lightweight dirt is absorbed by a suction unit with a dust bag. The result is a quality finish after cleaning at high speed with a reliable machine that is fully height adjustable.

Brushing the edges of synthetic turf pitches is important and generally it’s where the most persistant contamination will be found in the form of moss and algae settlement. Greentech put their GKB Rotobrush to work with good effect from the extra rigid bristles and report a deeper, more effective brush in areas where normal brushing and cleaning are not sufficient. They found the Rotobrush ideal for working with and restoring the technical characteristics of the synthetic surfaces they were cleaning, while removing the contamination.

“We’re constantly moving around covering maintenance on synthetic sports surfaces of a wide variety, from Local Authorities, to schools and main sports venues,” says Ewan, “and the GKB machines are ideal, especially for the speed at which we need to work.”

For more information, visit: www.gkbmachines.com

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Hortech – championing the SCAG SWZ

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Hortech – championing the SCAG SWZ: The SWZ is the model name for the SCAG pedestrian mower, which is supplied in the UK and parts of Europe by STM Co Ltd – and few people know these machines better than the grounds maintenance company Hortech Ltd. They’ve used SCAGs for 25 years; these are machines that work hard for their living, and this has led Hortech to select SCAG as the machine of choice for their work.

We spoke to their Commercial Director Duncan Jones, who has just taken delivery of four SCAG SWZs and he explained about several aspects of the range that keep SCAG so high on their specification list for their work for sites such as industrial, gas and water utility sites.

Hortech – championing the SCAG SWZ

Water utility sites are a good example of SWZs being ideal – the steeply angled sides on domestic reservoirs always present a challenge, and the SWZ with the twin-wheel option is a very well established and respected solution. This option effectively lowers the centre of gravity of the machine to keep it well placed on angles.

Duncan explained also about a brand-new contract they have recently been awarded that involves a very large number of sites – and to help with this work the new machines have been supplied with spark limiters because of the working environment involved.

Their whole fleet amounts to over forty SCAGs, and another example of keeping these useful machines in operation over the whole year is winter use of their use of their machines fitted with the STM snow blades.

Quotes from a large water utilities customer featuring reservoir work come from the operators themselves, “Happy to use the machines all day long”, and “We like SCAG best”.

STM are very proud to have someone say that of their products – and proud to have Hortech Ltd as a customer.

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John Deere At PGA Catalunya

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John Deere At PGA Catalunya: PGA Catalunya Resort, located near Girona in Spain, has signed its first ever five-year preferred equipment supplier agreement with John Deere to provide a fleet of 10 new Gator utility vehicles, as part of its three-year investment plan.

The European Tour Destination, renowned for its commitment to first-class course maintenance, has already been using John Deere 2500E hybrid electric triplex greens mowers, 9009A TerrainCut rotary rough mowers, 2030A ProGator utility vehicles equipped with HD200 low-profile amenity turf sprayers and TX Turf Gators. The new five-year deal, supported by John Deere Financial and including PowerGard maintenance cover, sees the addition of two more ProGator vehicles and three rough mowers to the fleet, as well as two compact tractors, supplied by local dealer Ramon Font of Vernis & Taberner Equips, SL.

John Deere At PGA Catalunya

“Being home to Spain’s No. 1 course since 2011, expectations on how our courses play, look and feel are high, so the machinery we need must produce a consistent, first-class finish – and in John Deere’s equipment we have well-engineered and reliable machinery, which our mechanics appreciate,” says Alfredo Alvarez, Stadium Course Manager at PGA Catalunya Resort. “The greens staff really like the mowers’ quality of cut and the precision that can be achieved using the programmable TechControl display.”

Alvarez works alongside Tour Course Manager Roger Casadevall and Head Greenkeeper Aleix Masferrer, heading up a team of 21 greenkeepers and two mechanics who dutifully maintain the two championship courses to the highest standard.

“Following the recent Continental European course listing by www.top100golfcourses.com, we discovered the judging panel had specifically commented on the ‘immaculate conditioning’ of the Stadium Course – and thanks to John Deere’s superior turfcare machinery, we will uphold our course conditioning standards to the highest level,” says David Bataller, PGA Catalunya Resort’s Director of Golf Operations.

This investment in the future of PGA Catalunya Resort’s two championship courses is part of a €53 million redevelopment programme that has seen the opening of two new hotels, the addition of a new vineyard, sports and leisure facilities, and a wide range of services and activities since its conceptualisation in 2016. The addition of an equestrian centre and a man-made recreational lake will complete the estate’s transformation into one of Europe’s most desirable luxury lifestyle destinations at less than an hour from Barcelona and 15 minutes from the historic town of Girona, in north-eastern Spain.

For more information, visit: www.JohnDeere.com

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