Tag Archive for: Award

MHM’s Leonie Wins Award

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MHM’s Leonie Wins Award: A talented young apprentice from Treherbert, in the Rhondda, South Wales has scooped a top prize in the 2019 Hire Awards of Excellence.

Leonie Morris, who works as an apprentice fitter for the equipment supplier firm MHM Plant Ltd, has been judged as ‘The Apprentice of the Year’ at a glittering ceremony held at the Grosvenor Hotel, London. Her prize was awarded to her by BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, Anton Du Beke.

MHM’s Leonie Wins Apprentice Award

Leonie (22) joined the company in August 2017. She extends her time repairing, maintaining and servicing a wide range of power generation and associated equipment, alongside her studies at Bridgend College.

The Hire Awards of Excellence celebrate the amazing achievements of hire and supply companies across the UK and Ireland’s plant, tool, equipment and event hire industry. Crucial recognition is also given to outstanding individuals who have consistently stood out from the crowd and achieved and set some of the highest standards in the industry. All the winners have been independently judged against stringent criteria, with the awards providing an excellent way of acknowledging and showcasing some of the very best practices that the hire industry can offer.

Commenting on winning this award, Leonie said, “I am honoured to have been given this award. It’s a great feeling to be formally recognised for doing a job I genuinely enjoy.  I am lucky enough to be surrounded by enthusiastic and talented people, who always have the time to help me progress. I hope that my success will encourage other young men and women to take up an apprenticeship in the UK hire industry, as it’s a great business to be in.”

Steven Jones, Workshop Manager, MHM Plant Ltd added, ““Talent isn’t a word I would use lightly, but in Leonie’s case, it applies. She is equally at home with petrol, diesel, mechanical and electrical equipment. I’ve worked with a few apprentices in my time, but none achieved, so early in their growth, the very high standards that Leonie sets out for herself.”

MHM Plant hires and sells a wide range of power, fuel storage, lighting, welding and associated equipment for the UK and Ireland rental markets. The company was incorporated in February 2010 and has their headquarters in Port Talbot, South Wales. They operate nationwide from two locations. MHM West is located in South Wales and MHM North in Coatbridge, Scotland. A London depot, MHM South, is currently under development.

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Pitchmark Win Queen’s Award

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Pitchmark Win Queen’s Award: Bristol based line marking machinery and equipment manufacturer, Pitchmark, has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2019.  

Pitchmark was founded in 2010 by ex-groundsman of over twenty years, Mark Rodman, and his wife Sue, with the vision of making line marking easier and with a better result for groundsmen everywhere. They were joined by their sons Tim and Darren and a family friend, Jon Griffiths. The five directors have grown the business rapidly to now employ fourteen people in the local area and sell products in over thirty countries around the world.  They began as an export-only company, reaching as far as Brazil, Iceland, Australia and Qatar. Even today overseas sales account for 70% of the turnover. Pitchmark’s products are used at all levels of sport, from local amateur clubs to top international stadia like Wembley Stadium and competitions such as the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 and EURO 2016 France.

Pitchmark Win Queen’s Award

“We as a company are very proud to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise,’ says Mark Rodman. “It is the pinnacle of our achievements and puts the focus on what a small business can achieve in worldwide markets. It also recognises the contribution of our team of people at Pitchmark and the efforts of our key partners in each overseas territory. We work closely with our distributors, with a focus on education and support alongside our market-leading products.”

Pitchmark manufacture and supply a complete range of line marking paints, machinery and equipment for all kinds of sports and surfaces. Line marking is often a strenuous task and the company has shown a winning formula in making the job easier through innovation and solving customer pain points. An advanced GPS line marking is a strong example of the company’s approach. Pitchmark has demonstrated an exceptional growth record and remains focused on ambitious but realistic targets in the UK, Europe and overseas. The company is exploring opportunities for expanding the product range and providing services as well as products.

Pitchmark Win Queen’s Award

“Promoting British-made products around the globe is something we’re very proud of,” says Mark. “We’re big fans of putting the UK on the map wherever possible and joined Made in Britain so we can promote and advertise this recognisable logo on our British made products. Now we thank everyone who has been involved in our journey to achieving the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.”

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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 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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