Tag Archive for: Kubota

Replay expands UK operations with Kubota FC3-221e Fleet

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Replay expands UK operations with Kubota FC3-221e Fleet: One of the UK’s leading synthetic surface maintenance specialists has further strengthened its operation with the addition of five Kubota FC3-221e units, equipped with an out-front artificial brush.

Emerging from the pandemic with rapid growth and new investment, Replay Maintenance are now well placed to service the needs of close to 1,000 facilities nationwide – with the functionality and efficiency of the new Kubota fleet continuing a legacy of more than two decades of reliable service from their Gianni Ferrari units.

Replay expands UK operations with Kubota FC3-221e Fleet

Replay expands UK operations with Kubota FC3-221e Fleet

With customers ranging from schools and universities, MOD bases, leisure centres and private sports venues, Replay have doubled their workforce since 2020 as the company continues to secure major contracts throughout the UK. “Over the years we’ve learned exactly what we need from our equipment, to keep the growing operation working effectively” explains Managing Director Nick Harris. “Our machines need to be powerful enough to perform, but light and portable enough to transport easily and simple to operate enabling our field teams to work independently.”

Replay found a perfect match with Gianni Ferrari units but welcomed Kubota’s acquisition and subtle evolution of the product line – with the five Kubota FC3-221e machines working as part of a total fleet of 16. Working closely alongside Kubota’s product development team, the FC3-221e’s have been adapted to fully meet the needs of the artificial market, ensuring Replay keep operational consistency across the fleet, avoiding retraining of staff and ensuring a seamless transition for customers.

“Kubota really listened to our feedback to make sure the FC3-221e’s tick every box for us. They’re reliable, efficient and robust enough for the daily cleaning, decompacting, brushing and infill-redistribution on sand-filled, sand-dressed and 3G pitches” Nick says. “The new units retain all the same important performance characteristics, with the added bonus of some adaptations to make for a more comfortable ride and visually more attractive machine.”

With demand high, the plan is to renew more machines over the coming years, with the Kubota FC3’s central to the growth of Replay’s new localised, regional hub strategy. In addition to their core maintenance offering, new services such as their ‘Lift and Recycle’ programme are leading the industry in a sustainable, ‘cradle to grave’ approach. “With innovation, investment and Kubota technology, we’re in a fantastic position to continue setting the benchmark for synthetic surface management in the UK.”

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Travel’s a breeze with Kubota RTV’s

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Travel’s a breeze with Kubota RTV’s: How do you quickly and easily navigate over 300 acres of Championship golf course, ensuring that people and materials are always exactly where you need them? Well, if you’re the greenkeeping team working across the 45-holes at Blairgowrie Golf Club, with a fleet of five Kubota RTV’s – that’s how!

Delivering more than four years of rugged and reliable transportation, the RTVX-1110’s working alongside six Kubota compacts tractors have been credited with keeping the whole maintenance operation on course.

Travel’s a breeze with Kubota RTV’s

Travel’s a breeze with Kubota RTV’s

Since its formation in 1889, Perthshire’s Blairgowrie Golf Club has grown from an initial layout of 9 holes that now forms the ‘wee course’, with the addition of two further 18-hole courses. Over the years, the Rosemount and Lansdowne Courses have played host to many national championships for Scottish Golf, European Golf Association, DP World Tour and the R&A and consistently feature in Scotland’s Top 100 rankings. These accolades contribute to the high expectations of the 1800 members, putting the pressure on the greenkeeping team to retain the highest of standards all year-round.

“Our Kubota equipment is incredibly important to the operations at Blairgowrie Golf Club” comments Managing Secretary Stuart Wilson. “The six compact tractors ranging from the smallest B2261 up to the biggest, 74hp, M7060 are used daily for all elements of the maintenance programme. Whether it’s towing implements such as mowers or seeders or assisting with winter construction projects, they are a reliable source of power and performance.”

Equally versatile and popular are the five RTV-X1110’s, installed and maintained by the team at HRN Tractors. “The Kubota RTV’s are robust vehicles that are perfectly suited to the terrain of our courses and, ultimately, mean that we can traverse our sizeable site in good time” Stuart explains.

“The hydrostatic transmission and outstanding build quality means they can handle our undulating fairways with ease, providing the perfect combination of power, practicality and comfort. The high payload allows us to move tools and materials around quickly and efficiently, significantly improving our productivity. In addition, the hydraulic tip feature on the RTV’s is a favourite with a number of the team, meaning heavier or awkward loads can be dropped off both quickly and safely.”

From a maintenance perspective, the RTV-X1110’s tick even more boxes! “Compared to other utility vehicles, our mechanic finds the RTV’s incredibly easy to work on. Having said that, other than the routine service checks, there’s been very little he’s had to do with them as we’ve had no major issues to report in the four years we’ve had them!”

Should a question or issue arise, Stuart adds that the team are in safe hands with the back-up support available via HRN. “We have an excellent working relationship with HRN Tractors who are located only a short distance from the club. They have a very knowledgeable after sales team that can assist at short notice when required.” He concludes, “The RTV’s and Kubota equipment in general has been an invaluable asset to our business.”

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The Show Goes On with Kubota Fleet at The NEC

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The Show Goes On with Kubota Fleet at The NEC: A fleet of 30 G261 units from Kubota’s G-Series are helping to keep waste and facilities services on track at one of the country’s leading exhibition centres. The delivery from Hunts Engineering to The NEC Birmingham in March 2025 was well received by Darren Hawkins, Head of Soft Services, and a large team of OCS Group operatives who are now benefitting from Kubota comfort, convenience and reliability across the NEC, Vox Conference Centre and BP Pulse Arena.

OCS Group have been responsible for cleaning, waste, cloakrooms, portering and the wider estates at the NEC Group’s venues since 2012. Encompassing five venues in total, the need arose to replace the vehicles which are pivotal to the maintenance operation at three of the campus’s busiest sites. “We narrowed our search down to two brands before speaking to Richard Lucas from Hunts Engineering who brought us a Kubota G261 on demonstration” explains Darren. “We really put the machine through its paces, determined to find the limits of its capability and quite quickly discovered it could deliver everything our previous machines could with the added benefit of fantastic support from Richard and the team.”

The Show Goes On with Kubota Fleet at The NEC

The Show Goes On with Kubota Fleet at The NEC

With a couple of additional bespoke features – such as the fitting of amber safety beacons – to ensure the G261’s were fully fit for purpose, the first delivery of 20 units was made in March 2025, later joined by an additional 10 in July. “Their main task is to tow 1280 litre bins to various points, collecting litter and other waste during event build ups and breakdowns. As the old saying goes ‘the show must go on’ whether we’ve got machines to collect the litter or not so reliability is critical for us. So far, the Kubota’s haven’t missed a beat.”

The reliability of the fleet of G261’s reaffirms the sentiments of the NEC Estates Team, who have benefitted from the trusty power and performance of a Kubota M5-092 for the last 18 months. “It was the positive feedback from the Estates Department that really spurred me on to look at smaller machines in the Kubota range” Darren adds.

Depending on the event calendar, it’s not unusual for 20 or more of the G261’s to be out working on any given day. “The team have all received training on their operation which has made the transition relatively seamless, and hopefully means we’ll be able to better protect our investment.” Moving forwards, a combination of in-house monitoring and routine maintenance and servicing by Hunts will ensure the venue can continue to depend on the performance of the G261’s for years to come.

Steve Cartmell, NEC Group FM Contract Support Manager added, ““The teams’ choice of working with Hunts to provide Kubota machinery has ensured that the services OCS provide across our site can continue with improved reliability, fuel efficiency and user safety features, making the operation from event to event seamless.”

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Kubota to showcase high-cut capability at BTME

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Kubota to showcase high-cut capability at BTME: Kubota is set to make a popular return to BTME, once again partnering with Baroness to showcase a reliable and powerful portfolio of Japanese turf maintenance solutions on stand 624. The focus for 2026 is innovation in their out-front mowing range, with the FC4-441 fitted with a deck offering an impressive height of cut up to 7” taking centre stage.  

The FC4-441 is the latest addition to the FC mower range, designed to deliver versatile cutting performance on large areas such as parks and sports facilities. Equally at home on the golf course, the FC4-441 will be presented at BTME with a new out-front rotary cutting deck, capable of the higher heights of cut required for heather management, wildflower maintenance or the preservation of wildlife areas and longer roughs.

Kubota to showcase high-cut capability at BTME

Kubota to showcase high-cut capability at BTME

While the updated deck delivers improved performance in longer or more delicate vegetation, with a quick and simple adjustment the FC4-441 can cut other peripheral areas around the course – offering greenkeepers flexibility without compromise on cut quality or productivity – or even be used as a leaf collection unit thanks to its generous 1300L hopper.

No Kubota stand is ever complete without a compact tractor or two, with both the B2-261 and L2-452 making an appearance in Harrogate this January. Renowned for its power-to-size ratio, comfort and adaptability, the B2-261 is a popular choice with golf courses across the country. Meanwhile, the L2-452 combines robust, reliable technology with a high degree of operator comfort – providing 45hp of manoeuvrable performance for all mainstream maintenance tasks.

One of those tasks is aeration, with the L2-452 equipped with the Baroness TDA aerator showcasing the epitome of a productive partnership.

Visitors to stand 624 can also ask their questions to the Kubota technical team, who will be on hand across the three days to advise how these machines and others can support more efficient and sustainable golf course management.

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Kubota rises to the maintenance challenges at Hellidon Lakes

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Kubota rises to the maintenance challenges at Hellidon Lakes: Located at the highest point of Northamptonshire, Hellidon Lakes Golf Club boasts 27-holes of challenging parkland play, a hotel and a range of other facilities. Behind the pristine fairways and manicured greens is a small, dedicated maintenance team led by Golf Course Manager Gary Armstrong and an L2-622 and RTV-X1110 from Kubota.

A long-time Kubota user, Gary and his team have relied on the brand for both reliability and versatility. “I’ve worked with Kubota equipment for years so was pleased, when I started here seven years ago, to find Kubota was already part of the fleet. Our Senior Management at Hellidon Lakes loves the Kubota brand and the equipment is also favoured at our other venue course in Shropshire.” Gary explains.

Kubota rises to the maintenance challenges at Hellidon Lakes

Kubota rises to the maintenance challenges at Hellidon Lakes

This year, Hellidon Lakes upgraded its fleet through local Kubota dealer George Browns, replacing their previous compact tractor which had served the club for over 20 years with a higher-horsepower L2-622 which was delivered in April 2025, alongside an RTV-X1110.

“Our grounds here are steep and undulating so we needed something that could handle these ground conditions and power a wide array of implements. The L2-622 is now our main workhorse – running our trailed mower, sprayers, trailers, side-arm flails… basically anything that requires a tractor, the L2 is there to provide the power!” He adds, “The greater capacity and capability of the L2-622 gives us scope moving forwards to utilise other, more power-hungry implements that will bring further benefit to our maintenance programme, particularly on the fairways.”

“The RTV-X1110 has been brilliant for moving materials and people around the site, with the added bonus of it being homologated for road use.” Gary notes, “With hydrostatic transmission (HST), it’s slightly different to operate than our previous utility vehicle but feels better tailored to the needs of turf maintenance and the team have quickly and easily adapted to it, to get the most out of the RTV.”

Longevity and robust reliability were key considerations in the club’s choice to stick with Kubota, with the management teams confidence in the brand making the recent investments an easy decision. Important, too, is the strong local support from George Browns. “Our relationship with George Browns is fantastic. Their Daventry depot is just a few miles away giving us extra peace of mind and making service and parts easily accessible. This convenience, combined with trust in the badge, sealed the deal” Gary concludes.

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