Tag Archive for: Centre

Kubota opens new European Parts Centre

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Kubota opens new European Parts Centre: Kubota has opened a new European Parts Centre (EUPC) to strengthen its global parts supply chain network.

Located in Thionville in the French region of Moselle, the new warehouse was built specifically as a dedicated parts distribution hub primarily to supply dealers and distributors across Europe and the UK, but with the ability to also support key regions such as the US and Japan.

Kubota opens new European Parts Centre

Kubota opens new European Parts Centre

Representing an investment of €15 million, Kubota’s new EUPC covers a footprint of 20,000 square metres, and currently employs around 90 staff. From this hub, dealers and distributors will have access to a vast stock of spare parts for agricultural, groundcare and construction products, and industrial engines, as it further strengthens its presence in Europe.

“The development of this extensive parts centre will provide greater access and availability to further support our existing regional parts supply operation in the UK,” explains Simon Chadbone, Kubota (UK)’s business development manager for parts.

“Having a European Parts Centre will greatly benefit our dealer and distributor network, by providing a more timely and cost-effective solution for the supply of original parts, which in turn will reduce the impact of downtime for our customers,” he adds.

Globally, Kubota has a spare parts strategy to build distribution centres that cover key regions in Japan, Europe and north America. This latest hub, centrally located in Europe, has a vital role in stocking a wide variety of parts and of sufficient volume, to ensure the best product availability across Europe.

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Toro opens visitor centre at Spellbrook Factory

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Toro opens visitor centre at Spellbrook Factory: Toro U.K. Limited have opened a visitor centre at their Spellbrook factory in Hertfordshire.  After significant investment, Toro have converted an old agricultural building based by their test fields into a multi-functional visitor centre, which includes a kitchen, toilets, Wi-Fi and full audio visual facilities.

Capable of holding small intimate meetings to large events, the building will give the opportunity for Toro to welcome more groups to the site, including customers and Dealers from both the UK and Europe.

Toro opens visitor centre at Spellbrook Factory

Toro opens visitor centre at Spellbrook Factory

In honor of the founder of Hayter mowers, Toro UK have named the building the “Douglas Hayter Visitor Centre” and have added various nods to the sites history in the form of a history wall, display cabinets and even some heritage and special edition machines.

Toro UK combined the launch of the visitor centre with a celebration for staff of the Queens Platinum Jubilee.  Having held a Royal Warrant for supplying Her majesty the Queen since the 60s, it was especially important for the Toro UK team to celebrate this occasion.

“This visitor centre provides Toro with a really useful space to host and interact with our Dealers and customers.  From training to new product development, this visitor centre will be vital to growing our business in the UK” said Craig Hoare, Sales & Marketing Manager – Toro U.K. Limited. “There was only ever one choice, when it came to naming the building and I am so pleased we have been able to honour Doug Hayter, the man who started it all and to be able to bring some of our history into the building.”

The first official Customer event to be held in the new Visitor Centre will be the Toro UK Dealer days in September, where Dealers will get to tour the factory and see the new ranges for the 2023 season.  If you are interested in attending, please contact sales.uk@toro.com

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Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light

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Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light: Located near Bristol, Thornbury Golf Centre is set to embark on an exciting £600,000 irrigation investment project which is designed to amplify the look and playability of both golf courses, while also dramatically improving maintenance efficiency.

The project – funded by club owner and operator, Burhill Group Limited (BGL) – represents the group’s unwavering dedication to facility improvement and enhanced member and customer experience, while also reflecting a surge in membership numbers at all 10 clubs in recent years.

Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light

Thornbury Golf Centre gets green light

The first phase of the project will cost around £275,000 and will see the foundations laid across both golf courses for the installation of a new high-tech irrigation system that will include tee boxes, fairways, approaches and greens. Crucially, the new system will allow the club to better manage the amount of moisture in the ground, making the courses more playable, all year round.

Once completed, the new irrigation system will be controlled via mobile device or computer, allowing maintenance teams to control the conditioning of the golf courses, 24-hours a day. This will make a huge difference to staff efficiency and will also help to deliver an exceptional golf experience that can be enjoyed by club members, guests, and visitors.

Tim Good, General Manager of Thornbury Golf Centre, said: “We are delighted to have been afforded this opportunity by BGL, to make further enhancements to our facility. We are committed to delivering the very best golfing experience for our members and guests, and this is the next step along our road of continuous improvement.”

Guy Riggott, Operations Director at BGL Golf, commented: “We are constantly monitoring the progress of our facilities and looking for new and innovative ways to improve our offering. With this upgrade to the irrigation system across both courses, the team at Thornbury will be able to offer a first-class golfing facility, 12 months of the year.”

This news comes immediately following the club’s announcement that it has been officially awarded with the SafeGolf Accreditation and has been recognised as a GEO Certified venue. These awards reflect the club’s commitment to health and safety, the local environment, social responsibility, and sustainability.

Good added: “We are constantly looking at ways to develop and improve our working practices, so we are extremely pleased that both England Golf and GEO have recognised our efforts, both in health and safety and environmental sectors.”

To find out more about Thornbury Golf Centre and to book your visit, head online to www.thornburygc.co.uk, or call 01454 281144.

For more information on Burhill Golf and Leisure Ltd visit www.bglcompany.co.uk or follow @BGLGolf on LinkedIn.

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Ventrac package for Leicester training centre

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Ventrac package for Leicester training centre: Leicester City Football Club, last season’s FA Cup winners, is the latest organisation to appreciate the multiple benefits of Ventrac.

Delivered by local dealer, Farols, the package included a Ventrac 4500 all-terrain compact tractor in dual-wheel configuration, a Contour mowing deck, Trencher and Power Broom and will be used to maintain their new world-class training centre of at Seagrave in Leicestershire.

Ventrac package for Leicester training centre

Ventrac package for Leicester training centre

Following a demonstration earlier this year and with input from his team, John Ledwidge, Head of Sports Turf and Grounds at the Premier League club, specified the purchase.  He is an integral part of the team that has developed the world-class training facility, where he oversees the management and development of the 180-acre site. This includes the equivalent of 14 turf pitches, synthetic pitches, a 9-hole golf course and the world’s first dedicated Sports Turf Academy.

Commenting on the latest addition to the machinery fleet, he said,

“Our owner is passionate about this football club and the community we share. He wants the very best and this facility demonstrates that commitment. We all share his vision and our aim is to make this the premier training centre in Europe.

“To be fair, we took a lot of our inspiration from the exceptional job Darren Baldwin has done at Tottenham’s facility, where we first saw the Ventrac in action during the research phase of the plan. I’d also seen it at various trade fairs and in the media. We needed a machine that was highly versatile, that can help us here improve a site that’s going to be constantly evolving over the next five years.

“The Contour deck helps us maintain the numerous banks and sloped areas around the complex, including ‘Mount Vardy’, the nickname we’ve given to a landscaped area of unused spoil from the original build. It is also used on the golf course where its articulated design prevents scalping. We’ve used the Trencher to insert drainage bands in some particularly wet areas of the golf course and the Power Broom does a great job on the pathways and carparks. It’s all about quality presentation and the versatility of the Ventrac helps us achieve the high standards demanded here.”

Chris Minton is the club’s Head Mechanic, supervising a team of three in the state-of-the-art Maintenance Facility located within the Sports Turf Academy building. Commenting on the Ventrac he said, “It’s a very good and impressive piece of kit; robustly constructed and powerful, considering it has a sub-25 hp engine. It’s simple to work on, all the belts are easily accessible as are the greasing points and the flip-up decks make our job easier when we need to access the blades or blade spindles. Definitely a very good addition to our fleet.”

John Ledwidge’s career

John began his career in 2002 as an apprentice groundsman at Coventry City where, at the tender age of 19, he was promoted to Deputy Head Groundsman. In 2008 he was appointed Assistant Grounds Manager at Aston Villa and 18 months later returned to Coventry to take up the Head Groundsman role, where he was responsible for directing pitch preparations for the London 2012 Olympics at the City of Coventry Stadium (now the Ricoh Arena).

Following the much-publicised issues at Coventry during this time, he then joined Ricoh Arena in the role of Grounds Manager and in 2014 was successful when he applied for Head Groundsman’s position at Leicester City. In 2016 he was promoted to Grounds Manager and then in July 2019 he took up his current role as Head of Sports Turf and Grounds, where he leads a team of 52 staff working across multiple sites and is actively involved in the ongoing development and investment in the class-leading sports turf surfaces at the club.

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John Deere’s new apprentice training centre

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John Deere’s new apprentice training centre: John Deere and training provider ProVQ have announced plans to open a brand new Apprentice Training Centre this autumn, at a farm site in Upper Saxondale near Bingham in Nottinghamshire. This will mark the 30th anniversary of the company’s first Ag Tech apprentice intake, who were enrolled at original partner Brooksby Melton College in 1992.

Designed specifically and solely for John Deere dealer apprentices attending the company’s award winning Ag Tech, Turf Tech and Parts Tech training programmes, the first John Deere Apprentice Training Centre was established at Radcliffe-on-Trent five years ago. These premises have now been outgrown, due to the programmes’ success and increasing dealer demand.

John Deere's new apprentice training centre

John Deere’s new apprentice training centre

The Ag ,Turf and Parts Tech apprenticeships focus on developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for dealer personnel of the future. Each year group trains at the centre for up to eight weeks a year in four blocks of two weeks. Some of this time is also spent at John Deere’s Langar HQ when working with the largest equipment and the latest technologies.

John Deere appointed ProVQ Limited in summer 2015 as its new business partner to deliver the apprentice training programmes on behalf of its dealers in the UK & Ireland. Since that time the strength of the partnership has allowed the programmes to develop and grow to meet the needs and expectations of a modern John Deere dealership. The current full-time ProVQ staff will continue to be managed by James Haslam at the new Apprentice Training Centre from the autumn.

ProVQ started its apprentice training programmes in 2005, and went on to develop a full range of national services including apprentice recruitment, training, vocational assessment and qualifications. Today the company trains over 600 apprentices and many hundreds of adult learners on technical, parts and customer service programmes.

“We are really looking forward to establishing this new bespoke facility close to our UK headquarters at Langar,” said John Deere Limited training centre manager Allan Cochran. “Our joint investment in the expanded Apprentice Training Centre will be in the region of £1.5 million. This will allow us to continue our growth and ambition to attract more young talent to develop successful careers in land-based engineering through the John Deere agricultural, turf and forestry dealer network.

“As our dealership businesses continue to grow, there is increasing demand for qualified technicians equipped with the correct knowledge and skills to support that growth. We have therefore recognised the need to increase the capacity of our already successful and industry leading training programmes even further.

John Deere's new apprentice training centre

John Deere’s new apprentice training centre

“The new site will feature a purpose-built two-storey unit in addition to refurbished and extended farm buildings, effectively almost doubling our available square footage. The premises will include a bigger workshop space as well as larger classroom and cafeteria facilities.

“Most importantly, this will give us the capability to double our throughput of trained technicians to meet dealer demand. ProVQ will maintain its current staffing levels and continue to provide the full suite of apprentice technician training programmes at the new premises.”

ProVQ managing director Stuart Jones added: “Together with John Deere, we have already jointly developed a very high quality training environment in which apprentices can learn to master the technology that underpins the company’s comprehensive agricultural and amenity turf product ranges.

“We are now looking forward to seeing many more young people come through the doors of our new training centre at the start of what is undoubtedly a very exciting and rewarding career in engineering and parts support. The facilities we are developing will help them to achieve their full potential in a rapidly changing industry that offers a great opportunity to work with some of the most advanced technologies supporting food production, land management and environmental sustainability.”

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