Tag Archive for: Acquire

Howardson Group acquire Lloyds Mowers

Howardson Group acquire Lloyds Mowers: Howardson Group, manufacturers of the Dennis and SISIS range of grounds maintenance equipment, are delighted to announce the acquisition of Lloyds Mowers of Letchworth and Hunter Grinders.

This strategic alliance builds on the Dennis range of mowers with the addition of the Lloyds Paladin cylinder mower – renowned for cricket, bowls and golf along with the trailed Leda and Giant gangs, used extensively for wide area mowing.

Howardson Group acquire Lloyds Mowers

Howardson Group acquire Lloyds Mowers

Hunter Grinders is known worldwide in golf and stadia for their superior grinding performance on cutting cylinders and bottom blades.

“We see a lot of potential with both brands,” Ian Howard MD of Howardson Group commented. “We have been in discussion with Lloyds for quite some time.  We consider the brands much like our existing ones – well built, designed to do the job and with longevity.”

Clive Nottingham, the well-known face of Lloyds and Hunters, will work closely with the Howardson senior management team as the two brands are embedded into the wider group of companies at Kirk Langley.

The brands will be showcased at BTME 2023 with their own dedicated stand.

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Ben Burgess to acquire JW Doubleday

Ben Burgess to acquire JW Doubleday: Long-standing John Deere dealer JW Doubleday is to be sold to Ben Burgess in line with the manufacturer’s Dealer of Tomorrow strategy. 

Doubleday has sold John Deere’s agricultural machinery for more than 40 years – an anniversary marked in June 2022 – but an agreement has been reached with Ben Burgess to transfer all staff and sites, with a completion date expected before the end of October.

Ben Burgess to acquire JW Doubleday

Ben Burgess to acquire JW Doubleday

The deal will see Ben Burgess, which has been a John Deere dealer since 1964, expand into Lincolnshire for the first time, adding four more sites to its existing seven. It will take over the sites at Holbeach, Old Leake and Swineshead in Lincolnshire, as well as increasing its footprint in Norfolk with Doubleday’s depot at Kings Lynn.

It means that, from November, Ben Burgess will serve farmers and contractors in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland.

John Deere Limited Divisional Business Manager, Joedy Ibbotson, said: “I would like to express our gratitude to the Doubleday-Collishaw family for what they have done, supporting and growing the John Deere brand since becoming a dealer.

“The agreement with Ben Burgess – which ensures the continuity of the Doubleday team and dealership outlets within the John Deere network – is great news as it brings together two outstanding dealerships, both with a long history of representing John Deere.

“The two businesses are closely aligned. Both have a strong culture of customer support, helping customers embed John Deere’s products and cutting-edge technological innovations into their farming operations.”

Ben Turner, Director at Ben Burgess, said: “We are delighted to be able to confirm the agreement that has been reached with the Doubleday group, which has an enviable reputation for being a strong, successful and customer-centric business for 50 years.

“Farmers and contractors in Lincolnshire and Norfolk have been served fantastically by the group’s talented staff, and we are privileged to be taking on the outstanding legacy the Doubleday dealerships have built in the territory.

“We are both family businesses and share the same values. We will uphold our high standards for sales and service moving into the future. Both groups are committed to business continuity as usual for customers and staff while the deal is completed.”

Ian Doubleday-Collishaw, grandson of the company’s founder, commented: “This decision has not been taken lightly, but the Doubleday-Collishaw family is determined to protect the future of its loyal team and the longevity of a reputable John Deere dealer across our trading area.

“The combination of our joint processes, dedicated teams and the infrastructure already in place at Ben Burgess will deliver the best value to both our team and customers. We are confident the level of service you our customers are accustomed to will continue undisrupted.

“My family and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated team and our loyal customers, many of whom we consider our friends who have supported us throughout our 40 years as a John Deere dealer.”

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Kubota to acquire Officine

Kubota to acquire Officine: Kubota Corporation intends to merge the lawn-mower business division of Italian manufacturer Officine BIEFFEBI (BFB) and its subsidiary Gianni Ferrari (GF) into a new wholly-owned subsidiary of Kubota Holdings B.V., Kubota’s European subsidiary for its agricultural industrial machinery business.

The creation of this new subsidiary, which will be called Kubota Gianni Ferrari S.R.L., will expand Kubota’s range of Groundcare products, aimed at professionals in sectors such as parks, stadiums and landscaping for individual customers. By integrating these new resources into its sales, production and development processes, Kubota Holdings Europe will speed up the expansion of this business line in Europe.

Kubota to acquire Officine

Kubota to acquire Officine

Officine BIEFFEBI and Gianni Ferrari have an excellent reputation and large market share in Europe as pioneers in centre collect front mowers (CCFM), a segment of medium to large high-end professional mowers for which demand has been growing steadily in recent years. In particular, both companies enjoy great popularity as CCFM pioneers in Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, among other Western European countries.

That is why Kubota has chosen BFB and GF as the best partners to strengthen and complement Kubota’s lawn equipment business in Europe. The two acquired companies and Kubota have their own competitive advantages and product ranges in the different markets. This allows their offerings to complement each other perfectly, making this commercial partnership the optimal choice to take this line of business forward in the future.

Although Kubota’s lawn-mower division in Europe had been showing solid growth in the professional and high-end consumer segment thanks to its products’ superior resistance and operating capacity, the new company, Kubota Gianni Ferrari S.R.L., will have even vaster capabilities to develop and manufacture lawn equipment in Europe, including the highly-demanded CCFM. Kubota’s CCFM segment will thus also receive a major boost and will have the company’s sales and dealer support network at its disposal.

The closing of this transaction is subject to the completion of the condition precedents including the obtainment of the Golden Power clearance. (The Golden Power is the special power of the Italian government to limit or stop foreign direct investments (“FDI”) and corporate transactions involving Italian strategic assets).

About BFB

Corporate name Officine BIEFFEBI S.p.a.
Head office Gonzaga, Lombardia, Italy
Established 1979
Business Develop, manufacture and sale of small and mid-size mower

About GF

Corporate name Gianni Ferrari s.r.l.
Head office Reggiolo, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Established 1989
Business Develop, manufacture and sale of small and large-size mower

Reference – About KHE

Corporate name Kubota holdings Europe B.V.
Head office Nieuw-Vennep, the Netherlands
Established 2017
Business Management of farm and industrial machinery business

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Agrovista UK Limited to acquire Maxwell Amenity

Agrovista UK Limited to acquire Maxwell Amenity: An agreement has been reached between Agrovista and the majority shareholders of Maxwell Amenity, and the transaction is expected to conclude in the next couple of months once the parties have finalised certain preparatory steps.  

Upon completion, Maxwell Amenity and Sherriff Amenity, the professional turf and landscape division of Agrovista, are to join forces.  This merger will bring together two of the most experienced and progressive teams in the professional turf sector.

Agrovista UK Limited to acquire Maxwell Amenity

The new business will focus on combining the skills and expertise of their respective teams to provide UK wide coverage, giving customers the highest standards of advice, products and service to meet the challenges currently facing the industry.

Commenting on the announcement, Managing Director of Agrovista UK, Chris Clayton said, “The acquisition is an exciting opportunity to grow the sales of amenity products by Agrovista through acquiring a business which is complementary to our current amenity business, Sherriff Amenity. The acquisition will allow Agrovista to extend its reach into customer channels in which it is currently underrepresented and better leverage the combined cost and asset base of both businesses.”

MD of Maxwell Amenity, Dave Saltman, stated, “We are very excited about the merger; both our teams have highly qualified and knowledgeable staff. Together with the greater research and product development support available, the new business will be a leading force in the professional turf sector, providing all customers with an even greater level of service.”

The new business will be headed by a combined senior management team.

This team will be working together over the coming weeks and months to ensure a smooth integration.

The team will be in touch with all customers to discuss the exciting new prospects that this merger will bring.

For more information, please visit www.agrovista.co.uk

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Ernest Doe Acquire Bartram Mowers

Ernest Doe Acquire Bartram Mowers: Ernest Doe & Sons Ltd has purchased the business of Bartram Mowers.

Mark Bartram approached Ernest Doe to buy the Bartram Mowers business following notification that Ransomes Jacobsen were expanding Ernest Doe’s territory for their franchise to incorporate Suffolk and Norfolk.

Ernest Doe Acquire Bartram Mowers

Ernest Doe’s Managing Director, Colin Doe, said:

“The Bartram Mowers business is a good fit for Ernest Doe. We have three branches in Norfolk and three in Suffolk from which to support customers in the area. The Bartram Ipswich depot has moved to our Framlingham branch today, but we will trade from Bartram’s Norwich site for three months before moving it to our North Walsham branch.”

As part of the deal, Ernest Doe has also acquired Bartram’s established lawnmowersdirect e-commerce platform.
Colin Doe commented further:

“With our network of established branches in Norfolk and Suffolk, we are focussed on building on the high level of service Bartram have provided to their customers and are looking forward to fresh challenges as we enter this exciting new phase of our business.”

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S&C Slatter Acquire White Horse Contractors

S&C Slatter Acquire White Horse Contractors: S&C Slatter is delighted to announce the acquisition of White Horse Contractors which becomes a member of The Slatter Group.

White Horse Contractors was established in 1957 by Arnold Binning. Since then it has grown into one of the leading providers of natural turf sports facilities, land drainage, water engineering, landscaping and civil engineering projects. It has gained a first-class reputation for quality and service in these sectors.

As a well-established family business, S&C Slatter are acknowledged as one of the Country’s foremost experts in the design and construction of sports facilities including artificial and natural pitches, multi-use games areas (MUGAs), hard and soft landscaping. The Surfacing & Civils division is also very successful in securing an increasing share in the infrastructure sector – car parks, roadways, hard standings.

White Horse Contractors will operate from the Group Head Office in Enborne, Newbury as an autonomous business under the guidance of newly appointed Managing Director David Smith and Technical Director James Welsh.

With this addition, The Slatter Group offers an unrivalled scope of services to a broad reach of clients within the sports grounds, amenity, leisure, agricultural and equestrian sectors. The knowledge base and resource that White Horse Contractors brings to the Group complements perfectly the skills, technology  and experience in artificial surfacing, civil engineering and project development accessible from the  existing specialist divisions of S&C Slatter.

David Slatter, who oversees the operations of all Group companies, comments ‘When I first took over the business from my Father, we provided sub-contract services for White Horse Contractors on their bigger projects. For me they were always the ‘Gold Standard’ which I was aiming to emulate and to this end I saw a perfect opportunity to approach the Directors of White Horse Contractors. To be able to bring their expertise and resource to our family business is a dream come true for me. The depths of services, skills and knowledge that we can now offer our clients in a one stop shop is industry leading.’

James Binning is the third generation of the Binning family to chair White Horse Contractors and says, ‘I am delighted that we have found another family business which can take White Horse Contractors to new heights and that shares our company ethos and family values. Many of our staff have worked with us for decades and it is important to us that the business continues to be run in the same style as it has for the last 60 years.’

However, the Binning family association with the industry will not cease as White Horse Contractors’ workshop and plant will continue to grow and thrive under a new name, Muddy Plat Hire Ltd, providing specialist plant hire services to The Slatter Group and the industry at large.

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Dennis & SISIS Acquire Foley Grinder

Dennis & SISIS Acquire Foley Grinder: Dennis & SISIS have bolstered their production line with the addition of a Foley Accu-Pro 673 to ensure perfect OEM specification grinding.

The renowned mower manufacturer had very specific requirements when it came to choosing the machine that would grind all of the bedknives for their mowers, citing reliability, flexibility and accuracy as the top three priorities.

Dennis & SISIS Acquire Foley Grinder

As part of the production line, the Accu-Pro 673 fully automatic Bedknife grinder is in constant use and will grind thousands of bedknives a year, with the machine having already delivered between 500 to 600 blades in its first three months.

These blades are manufactured in-house through Dennis Sisis’ sister company, Crocodile Precision Ltd, and Ian Howard, managing director of Dennis Sisis, explains the importance of having a high-quality reliable grinder as the company moves through their busiest year to date.

“Our specification for a grinder differs slightly from a golf course or football club because of the amount of time our grinders are working,” Ian began. “We’re having our busiest year to date, our order books are full, sales are booming, and demand is increasing all the time, so this increases our need for reliability and quality in the production line.

“Every bedknife we produce has to be individually ground to the correct OEM specification on the bedknife carrier, prior to mower assembly. We need a grinder that makes efficient use of workshop time by being quick and easy to set-up particularly as we are constantly swapping between different length blades.

“Our customers expect accurately ground relief angles on the blade, and the Accu-Pro 673 consistently delivers top-quality performance.”

The robust construction and features of the Foley machine made it a more attractive grinder for Ian and the Dennis Sisis team. The innovative mounting system uses powerful electromagnets to hold the bed bar in place and Positive Gauge Stops to make set-up simple and fast.

Fast angle set-up provides repeatability without recalibration. Set the Angle Stops once and the 673 will grind the same angle over and over. Changing from grinding the front face to the top face is as simple as pushing a button and watching as the powered Tool Bar rotates into the position.

Automation is at the core of the 673’s success, with the pre-set programmes automatically starting the grinder, traversing the grinding head, in-feeding the grinding head and stopping the grinding process.

One man who experiences the full benefit of these features is Dennis & SISIS senior grinding technician, Tony Snaith. “I’ve been delighted with the performance and speed the blades can be set-up and ground,” he said.

“The Accu-Pro 673 has performed consistently, efficiently and accurately and has coped with the constant demands of the production line. It has really proven itself to be the perfect machine for what we need.”

Foley grinders claim to deliver the best grinding solution available on the market. Be it for high output in a production line, contractor, local authority or the more measured approach of affordable in-house grinding for golf courses and football clubs.

For more information, visit: www.foleyunited.com

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AL-KO Gardentech Acquire Rochford

AL-KO Gardentech Acquire Rochford: German manufacturer AL-KO Gardentech have acquired Rochford Garden Machinery. The deal was announced after completion on Wednesday (1st Aug) this week.

Rochford say that 100% of the company has been acquired, with all divisions, staff and product lines remaining unchanged.

AL-KO Gardentech Acquire Rochford

Both parties have agreed to confidentiality regarding the financial terms of the arrangement.

Rochford, based in Wincanton, Somerset, is one of UK´s leading garden machinery suppliers, both in imports and sales of domestic and commercial garden machinery. The family run business founded in 1976 in Bruton, Somerset, has been an importer of AL-KO products for almost 15 years.

Elizabeth Rochford, wife of founder Peter Rochford said of the acquisition, “We are pleased to have AL-KO Gardentech, our long time partner, as our new owner, which helps us to take Rochford to a new level of profitability, sales and market penetration.

“With this merger, we have taken the necessary steps and passed our business on to experienced hands to ensure sustainable future development for employees and customers.

“We have every confidence in AL-KO Gardentech that our company will be led into a stable future and that Rochford will remain a professional home for our employees. Furthermore, the management team around managing director, Stewart Anderson, will stay the same.”  This management team includes Mark Rochford and sister Kerry Moore.

Managing director of Rochfords, Stewart Anderson says: “This exciting acquisition gives us the opportunity to take our business to the next level and develop our portfolio of brands which include AL-KO, DR, Mitox, and Weibang. The company and its ranges will continue as they are, with the added benefit of developing new product categories from the AL-KO company in new channels.

“We are embarking on 10 dealer shows across the UK in September to showcase our new product ranges, technical updates, and competitive trade terms, details of which will be released shortly.”

Dr. Wolfgang Hergeth, COO of AL-KO KOBER SE, said, “We are pleased to be able to win Rochford, one of the strongest trading partners in the UK garden machinery market for the AL-KO KOBER GROUP. Like the acquisition of the New Zealand garden equipment manufacturer Masport last year, this investment is a clear signal for a strong future of AL-KO Gardentech. The transaction significantly enhances our organic and inorganic growth targets and thus continues our positive business development over the last few years.

“The good economic situation of Rochford shows a well-established and managed company. Services such as customer services, repair offerings or spare parts management fully meet the AL-KO standard ‘Quality for life’. Rochford will now be able to continue its development under the modern entrepreneurial AL-KO KOBER GROUP and to provide customers with first-class and innovative products as well as service and support.

“The entry into the British market is a logical consequence of the great market potential in specialist trade and DIY, the British affinity to online trade as well as significantly increased interest in robotic garden machinery. Thanks to its strong customer relationships on all channels, Rochford provides direct customer access to AL-KO Gardentech, which gives further impetus for substantial growth in the UK.

“With this merger, we will now be able to further develop the DIY and e-Commerce business and, at the same time, consistently force the innovations of smart gardening and future battery technologies. Within the corporate group, there is simply more development potential for AL-KO Gardentech and Rochford. This acquisition offers a long term perspective for employees to work in a dynamic and fast growing business.”

Rochford Garden Machinery’s roadshows take place between 10th September to 21st September.