Kubota announces further expansion

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Kubota announces further expansion: Kubota (UK) Ltd is pleased to announce that Vincent Tractors & Plant has further widened its geographical area, reaching north east from its existing Devon and Cornwall locations with a new depot in Wellington, Somerset.

This progressive extension of the Vincent’s sales area and customer base sees the dealership expand into parts of Somerset, and north and east Devon with a fourth depot to support agricultural and groundcare customers throughout the South West of England.

Kubota announces further expansion

Kubota announces further expansion

“Vincent Tractors & Plant’s expansion continues to strengthen Kubota’s commitment to its customers and the markets in which our business operates,” says Henry Bredin, general manager of Kubota (UK)’s Tractor Business Unit. “This strategic expansion sees the Vincent family continue to develop its partnership with Kubota, as it actively supports a wider customer base in both agricultural and groundcare sectors.”

The additional depot complements existing locations in Holsworthy, north Devon, plus Smithaleigh near Plympton in south Devon, and the company’s headquarters in Fraddon, Cornwall. From Wellington, the company will provide sales, parts, service and support for the Kubota tractor and implement ranges, and Kubota groundcare equipment.

As Vincent Tractors & Plant’s newest Kubota centre, the Wellington depot officially opened its doors to customers on Thursday November 10th and includes extensive stores, showroom and workshop facilities, along with generous yard space that provides opportunities for growth as the business moves forward.

Easily accessed from J26 of the M5 and the north Devon link-road, the dealership is able to support customers in north Devon and Somerset, reaching north to Bridgwater, and east towards Axminster.

Serving agriculture, construction and grounds maintenance sectors across Cornwall for more than 50 years, the business that was started by Ken and Esme Vincent has recently welcomed third generation family members Alec and Nick Vincent into the fold. The brothers’ arrival, combined with ongoing business expansion – both geographically and with a diverse range of equipment – puts the dealership in a strong position to continue growing its customer base.

“We’re pleased to be a part of this exciting journey with Kubota, but just as importantly, we’re looking forward to welcoming new and existing agricultural and groundcare customers through the doors at Wellington,” says sales director Nick Vincent.

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Superior service seals the deal

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Superior service seals the deal: The combination of an Arborist 130 and SAFE-Trak 19-28 from GreenMech are proving the perfect pair for Heartwood Tree Care, providing Owner Gavin Coles the versatility he needs on his fleet to undertake both small domestic work and larger-scale commercial projects.

Gavin made the switch to GreenMech earlier this year following reliability and support issues with another manufacturer, both of which are now a thing of the past with his GreenMech pair delivering quality performance, backed-up with first class dealer support.

Superior service seals the deal

Superior service seals the deal

Gavin and his team of two undertake tree-works for customers and a number of large estates across Kent and the South East. “Each job poses different challenges, but the main one is normally access – whether we’ve got to work on small, tight driveways or get equipment across uneven or soft ground” explains Gavin, who established Heartwood Tree Care 17 years ago. “Because of this, we like having road-tow and tracked chipper options available to us, but after reliability problems and some lacklustre customer support I lost all confidence in our previous brand.”

“I hadn’t used GreenMech chippers before but got in touch with our local dealer GA Groundcare Ltd who invited me along to their depot, where I was instantly impressed by the quality and design of the machines. You can tell they’ve really thought about how we operate, and this was also clear in the demonstration I had so I went ahead and purchased the two units to run side-by-side.”

The GreenMech Arborist 130 is powered by a 23hp petrol engine and features a generous in-feed hopper and no-stress feed system to process bushy brash or timber of up to 6” with ease. Gavin adds, “The large infeed is brilliant at pulling in awkward shapes and as a road-tow unit, is super portable for jobs in residential areas or those further away where you don’t want to take a trailer.” Complementing his Arborist 130 is a GA Groundcare refurbished 19-28 SAFE-Trak, featuring a 7.5” chipping capacity and GreenMech’s patented SAFE-Trak system which, with impressive ground clearance of 550mm, allows for safe traversing of uneven ground of embankments of up to 35o.

“This SAFE-Trak is proving to be a ‘go anywhere’ machine, which saves us so much time and labour by being able to take the chipper exactly where we want to use it. The flywheel drive belt tensioning system and engine bay layout is also better and more accessible on these two GreenMech chippers compared to previous models I’ve used.”

Together with the impressive performance, Gavin has also been delighted with the service received throughout the purchasing process from GreenMech and Ashley Stevens at GA Groundcare. “From the first phone call it was evident Ashley really knew his stuff, there were no questions he couldn’t answer!” He concludes, “In this profession, issues are always bound to crop up but ultimately it’s about how quickly these can be resolved and with GreenMech I know I’m in safe hands.”

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AriensCo EMEAA – Leadership team complete

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AriensCo EMEAA – Leadership team complete: Just over a year ago, Jochen Schneider took over responsibility for the European, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Pacific region as Executive Vice President (EVP) EMEAA for the multi-brand company AriensCo.

Since then, intensive work has been done on the vision and organisational structure of the European AriensCo. With effect from 1 October 2022, the management team around Jochen Schneider is now complete.

AriensCo EMEAA - Leadership team complete

AriensCo EMEAA – Leadership team complete

“With immediate effect, we are setting out together with AriensCo to be the best partner for our dealers and customers in the core segments of high grass mowing, lawn care and snow clearance in EMEAA as well. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to fill many of the newly created management positions with existing employees from the production sites in Germany and England,” said Jochen Schneider as part oft he presentation of his management team.

Maria Lange takes up her new position as Vice President RapidCare EMEAA. She is responsible for technical support, order processing, logistics of spare parts and new equipment across all AriensCo product brands. Already well established in the US, Maria Lange intends to firmly install the RapidCare service brand in EMEAA as well. In order to be able to fully concentrate on this comprehensive task, she will hand over her management tasks at the Bühlertann location to EVP Jochen Schneider in the future.

Darren Spencer remains Managing Director at the UK site and also takes over responsibility for production at the sites in Germany and England as the Vice President of Plants with immediate effect. Darren Spencer has been part of the company for 32 years and has held various management positions at Great Haseley.

Stephen Kuester has been leading the engineering and product development teams in the UK for the past two years and will continue to lead this area as Vice President for Engineering and R&D for the entire EMEAA region with immediate effect. The engineer and product designer brings over 25 years of experience from various industrial sectors in leading positions.

The responsibilities of Georg-Otto Fuchs, Vice President Product Management & Marketing EMEAA, include the product and brand strategy for the entire region across all product brands as well as the AriensCo Academy. Previously Head of Marketing, Service and Product Management at AS-Motor he has been working successfully for the company for six years. In his new role he will work closely with sales and Brad Stiles, the Vice President Sales EMEAA. Brad Stiles has been active in this function since May 2022.

Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology

Mark Scavillo was appointed Senior Vice President Finance EMEAA in July this year. He is now also responsible for overseeing the Human Resources and IT functions within the business.
Tamara Hauenstein, who has been Head of Human Resources at the production site in Bühlertann for six years, now becomes Vice President Human Resources with immediate effect. The HR executive is a trained coach and trainer. Taking into account the AriensCo core values, Tamara Hauenstein will be responsible for the implementation of the HR strategy and measures derived from it for the EMEAA region in the future.

Wolfgang Fiedler, previously Head of Operations and IT at AS-Motor, is now responsible for the entire IT environment in the EMEAA region as Vice President Information Technology (IT). One of his tasks will be to unify the different systems at the various locations. His eleven years of experience at AS-Motor and previously at other companies in this field are an excellent basis to master this difficult task. The position of plant manager in Bühlertann is open and currently being advertised.

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SALTEX visitors up

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SALTEX visitors up: Pre-pandemic confidence has returned to SALTEX as nearly 15 percent more visitors attended the 2022 show.

Over 8,300 attendees from across the UK and over 50 countries streamed through the doors over the two-day event at Birimingham NEC, signaling a return to pre-pandemic levels.

SALTEX visitors up

SALTEX visitors up

These latest figures confirm the confidence of visitors and exhibitors in SALTEX as the industry’s must-attend event for all those involved in the groundscare and turfcare industries.

Geoff Webb, CEO of The Grounds Management Association (GMA), the event organisers says:

“SALTEX has long been the flagship show for the industry and, in its 76th year, showed that, after the challenges of the pandemic, confidence from both visitors and exhibitors has returned.

“With nearly 15 percent more visitors than the 2021 show, SALTEX delivered on offering visitors the widest array of equipment and products to explore, with over 400 brands on display, and offered exhibitors the largest audience to showcase their products to.

“As a not-for-profit, everything we earn gets ploughed back into the industry through investment in resources and initiatives that benefit the groundscare sector, so, with the 2022 show being such a hit, we look forward to beginning work on ensuring we build on this success and make the 2023 show even better for the sector.

“We look forward to welcoming everyone back at SALTEX from 01-02 November 2023.”

In recognition of current economic challenges, the GMA introduced a special show rate for 2022 exhibitors, meaning that exhibiting at the 2023 show will cost the same despite increases in interest rates and inflation. The response from exhibitors has seen the 2023 floorplan filling up quickly, a sign of the confidence in SALTEX and the quality of exhibition the GMA seeks to deliver.

The independently audited post-show survey is already underway which will shed insight into the effectiveness of the event for generating new leads and sales for exhibitors and the role SALTEX is perceived to play in overall business strategy for both its visitors and exhibitors. The results of these surveys will be published in due course.

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Tiny Pro X decorates city for Remembrance Day

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Tiny Pro X decorates city for Remembrance Day: Doncaster has recently been given City status and its roundabouts are now adorned with large painted poppies in readiness for Remembrance Day this Sunday 13th November.

A special ceremony was held on Wednesday 9th November which saw King Charles III and the Queen Consort confer city status on Doncaster.

Tiny Pro X decorates city for Remembrance Day

Tiny Pro X decorates city for Remembrance Day

The poppies have been painted by the council, across several of the roundabouts on major routes around the city, using the latest technology – GPS-guided robotic line marking on the Tiny Pro X line marking robot.

The ability to mark out custom logos and designs is the latest feature on the Tiny Pro X line marker distributed exclusively in the UK by Origin Amenity Solutions.

The robots are designed to spray ready to use paint technology such as the IMPACT range. To give an idea of the efficiencies, the machines use as little as 1.1 litres of paint per standard sized football pitch and eliminate the messy, time-consuming inconsistencies associated with dilutable concentrate paints. With significant time and money saving benefits all round, robots are increasingly valued as the smart investment.

Ian Wigglesworth, Street Scene Operations Manager is responsible for managing grounds maintenance activities in the Borough and comments, “The City is looking fantastic.  The line marking robot is proving to be invaluable.  It’s very straightforward and efficient – using the tablet supplied with the robot, we followed a simple three step process which enabled us to paint the poppies in whichever size we wanted throughout the city.”

Gary Brindle, a Technical Sales Account Manager for Origin Amenity Solutions adds, “This revolutionary feature has been heavily requested, and we are delighted with how well received it has been. It is fantastic to see how our customers are using it and I’m delighted how well the poppies have turned out. They look striking when driving around Doncaster.”

Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day as it’s best known, marks the day that World War One ended in 1918. A two-minute silence is held across the country at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month to remember those who have died in any conflict.

Book a free demonstration of the Tiny Pro by visiting www.tinymobilerobots.com/field-marking-robot/tinymobilerobots-uk/

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