Tag Archive for: Machinery

New Management For Machinery Distributor

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New Management For Machinery Distributor: The UK distributor of Ferris, Wright and Spider mowers and Jensen woodchippers has announced new leadership this week.

Divisional Director Tim Lane, who established the Machinery Imports business at T H WHITE in 2016 and has been instrumental in the growth and success of the business, is moving onto a new role after 19 years at the company.

New Management For Machinery Distributor

Bill Johnston now assumes the role of Head of Machinery Imports from 1st February, taking full responsibility of the management of the division.

“I joined the T H WHITE Group in 2015 as a woodchipper specialist and since early 2017 have been responsible for Jensen UK, building relationships with dealers across the country and developing a comprehensive and growing dealer network for the brand” says Bill.

“My new role will involve further promotion of our four brands and further growth of the dealer network throughout the UK, using the momentum gained already in the past three years created by our experienced team.

“I have identified areas where we still have further opportunities for both our team and our existing dealers to grow and am excited for the future of our business.”

Bill will manage the Machinery Imports team of Area Sales Managers who will continue to support all the UK Ferris, Wright, Spider and Jensen dealers, as well as remaining the primary point of contact for Jensen woodchipper enquiries.

“Following a superb 18 months with Jensen, I feel we have barely started our journey with this premium brand. I’ll be working closely with our Jensen Woodchipper Specialist, Nathan Jacobs, to ensure we maintain the same level of dealer support.

“We have already identified opportunities for further gains in our parts business and will be appointing additional staff in that area in the coming weeks to support our parts offering.”

Focusing on the future of the business, Bill has impressive plans and aspirations in place for all departments, commenting:

“All four brands will benefit from technical and sales training that we are rolling out to our dealer network throughout 2019. We have plans in place to continue increasing brand awareness across the board and the business is forecasted to grow market share as a result.

“Particular focus will be given to our parts department where our sales and expertise grows year on year and with additional investment will create an enviable and highly efficient after-sales function.”

Prior to joining the T H WHITE Group, Bill spent 22 years managing Character Landscapes.

Based in central Wiltshire and operating from three depots, his company maintained a reputation for quality, with the business achieving significant repeat custom. Designing, building and maintaining some of the finest gardens in the South of England, working on a mix of private historic homes and parks, commercial developments and sensitive environmental sites.

Bill believes the success of his company was a direct result of the staff employed, with a diverse skill set and unequalled enthusiasm. Everyone within the company whatever their position, from the team of garden designers to the teams undertaking ground maintenance in all weathers were valued by both Bill and the customers.

“I fully recognise how a motivated team can achieve great success and will continue to pursue this aim throughout my career.”

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Terra Firma Machinery Portfolio Expanded

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Terra Firma Machinery Portfolio Expanded: Terra Firma has expanded its portfolio with the addition of four new brands, significantly increasing its groundcare machinery offering.

Terra Firma, one of Scotland’s largest specialist suppliers to the amenity and local authority markets, has recently announced dealership agreements with Kioti UK Ltd, Muthing flail mowers, Woods finishing mowers and Shibaura slope mowers.

Terra Firma Machinery Portfolio Expanded

First imported into the UK in 1996, Kioti has had a rapid impact in the groundcare sector with its range of tractors, utility side by side vehicles and WD1260 cut and collect mowers. UK sales of these products continue to grow and the ranges continue to evolve.

Woods high-performance finish mowers ensure a clean, crisp, manicured appearance year after year and the unique rounded front, tapered-side rear discharge deck allows operators to mow with better manoeuvrability – reducing trim time and increasing productivity. Heat-treated, alloy steel blades provide maximum performance and precision cutting for all turf care applications. The combination of a deep deck, baffling and unique rear discharge design ensures premium results.

The Muthing Mulching range is manufactured in Germany to the highest of standards and is renowned for producing high performance flails for the agricultural and groundcare markets. Notorious for their high quality of cut and mulching capability, there are a wide range of flail mowers available whatever the requirement.

Shibaura manufacture professional multi-purpose slope mowers for precise daily maintenance of slope areas. The machines are notoriously high powered, feature a low centre of gravity and allow operators to work comfortably and safely over steep inclines.

Commenting on the new dealership agreements, Allan Wright of Terra Firma, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to further extend the portfolio of machinery offered by Terra Firma. The Kioti product range has proven to be robustly built, well-designed and offers top quality products at a competitive price. We look forward to further promoting the Kioti brand across our territory in Scotland and Northern England and building new relationships with our ever-expanding customer base – we feel it will fit perfectly for our customer profile.

“We are also delighted to announce our partnership with Muthing flail mowers, Woods finishing mowers and Shibaura slope mowers – further expanding our capability to provide our customers with a wide range of quality specialist equipment.

“In my opinion, Muthing flail mowers are recognised as one of best flail mowers on the market with fantastic reliability and quality of finish; Woods finishing mowers are rugged, dependable and are proven to be very productive in terms of area cut per day and Shibaura is unique in offering bank mowers that can cut on inclines of up to 30 degrees.”

Terra Firma is well-placed to offer an excellent customer experience for sales and after-sales support, spare parts and service, and the new machinery is available with immediate effect.

The full range of groundcare equipment will be showcased in the all new Terra Firma Machinery Catalogue which will be released in January 2019.

For more details visit www.terrafirmascotland.co.uk or call head office on 01786 478902

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Machinery Imports Celebrate Successful SALTEX

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Machinery Imports Celebrate Successful SALTEX: The team from T H WHITE Machinery Imports were delighted to support the IOG and attend the 2018 SALTEX event again last week, held at the Birmingham NEC on 31st October and 1st November.

The two-day exhibition was attended by over 300 exhibitors and several thousand visitors, with the Machinery Imports stand, representing Ferris, Wright, Spider and Jensen brands dominating the space as the second-largest exhibitor stand in the whole venue.

Machinery Imports Celebrate Successful SALTEX

With an open space stand of 175m2 visitors to the stand were able to see a range of machinery from the Ferris, Wright, Spider and Jensen brands all in one place, with a large team on hand to answer any questions and talk to visitors about the machinery on display in detail.

Taking centre-stage on the stand was a large suspension demonstration unit from Ferris. Featuring a Ferris IS®2100Z on top, the suspension unit was able to show visitors exactly how the patented Ferris IS® suspension technology works on uneven terrain, with staff able to explain in more detail the benefits of the suspension on comfort, productivity, safety and machine longevity. As the only commercial zero-turn mowers in the world with full suspension, Ferris models including the new, compact 400S, launched in 2018, and the EFI Petrol engine powered IS®3200Z, were proudly on display alongside popular stand-on and pedestrian Ferris machines.

Launching at SALTEX was the new Ferris ISX®800Z, a 27hp petrol engine zero-turn mower with 52” rear-discharge deck, which garnered much interest throughout the show. The real innovations in the ISX®800Z were clear for all to see, introducing a new-to-the-industry double wishbone suspension system for an even smoother ride, as well as double belt drive system under the deck for extreme reliability and extended belt life.

Also launched at the event was the new prototype X Line from Spider, their smallest commercial mower to date at just 1m3 with an integrated winch enabling mowing on slopes and dangerous terrain up to 55°. Displayed on an angled stand, visitors were able to see the X Line in detail and up close, before it officially enters the market in the UK from Spring 2019 onwards. Other models on display included the ever-popular Spider ILD01 and low-profile 2SGS, designed for mowing under and around solar panels.

From Jensen, the original woodchipper brand established in Germany in 1884, visitors were presented with a selection of 3 popular chippers from the range including the A530 petrol towed machine, which at just 750kg can be towed with a standard, full UK driving licence. The A530L Diesel model was also highly popular at the show, alongside the exciting A530XL tracked chipper, which with a 150mm capacity and powerful 37hp diesel engine can make light work of timber and brash, clearing up to 15m3 per hour. The Jensen tracked system which can come either as fixed, adjustable or independently adjustable ‘Spider’ tracks, offers unrivalled stability and access for those harder-to-reach spaces such as slopes, embankments, uneven or unstable terrain.

Finally, visitors were welcomed to by representatives from the Wright team, who flew over from the USA specially, to see a range of Wright stander mowers including the Sport I and Stander I. Wright produced the world’s first stander mowers in 1997 and are the leading manufacturer of high quality, stand-on mowers in the world. Visitors were interested to stand and sit on the Wright mowers, testing the comfort and user-friendliness, as well as the easy-to-use spring-loaded height of cut adjuster which surprised guests with its effortless transition ability.

Judith Ross, Regional Sales and Marketing Manager at Wright, commented: “Working with the Machinery Imports sales team at SALTEX 2018 was a productive and informative experience. Wright values our partnership with Machinery Imports as a supplier of premium commercial equipment in the UK. SALTEX provides an important venue for industry-wide sharing of best practices and services in the green industry.”

The team were pleased to not only meet new and existing customers and dealers but also showcase the brands on film with the teams from SALTEX TV and Turf Matters who both visited the stand during the event. Not only that, popular YouTuber John Ryan who set up the Lawncare Legends social groups for groundcare professionals took time to visit the stand and film some of the machinery for his upcoming projects.

Machinery Imports Divisional Director, Tim Lane, was really pleased with the success of the show for the business, commenting:

“We were delighted to attend SALTEX again this year supporting the IOG and hosting a large stand space encompassing all four of our premium brands. The Machinery Imports team worked tirelessly throughout the event to highlight the exceptional range of machinery we have available to meet the customers’ every need, as well as showcasing our new innovations to the market through product launches from Spider and Ferris.

We are looking forward to speaking with all the stand visitors again over the coming weeks and months at demonstrations and meetings to discuss working together further in 2019.”

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More Than Washing Golf Machinery

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More Than Washing Golf Machinery: Fineturf, founded in 1995 by Simon Hutton, specialise in the construction, installation and maintenance of sports turf surfaces. The company started life providing deep tine aeration and top-dressing services to local golf courses, football and cricket clubs and went on to turf production in 1997. Since then, Fineturf has expanded and the company under Simon’s stewardship, has become established in the fine turf sector along with a good reputation.

Clients include football and rugby clubs, golf courses, bowling clubs, tennis clubs, racecourses and cricket grounds. Services offered include sports pitch and golf course construction, maintenance, drainage and irrigation along with bulk earthworks and contract spraying. Other companies in the group include Tillers Turf, a leading grower of golf, landscape and wildflower turf, throughout the UK and Europe and Fineturf Machinery, who specialise in the sale of new and used groundcare machinery and is a Toro dealer in Lincolnshire and North Nottinghamshire.

More Than Washing Golf Machinery

Simon Hutton, ever aware of current trends and developments in the sector Fineturf operate in, is keen to stay abreast. One such matter of concern was to ensure that, especially with the growing volume of plant and machinery requiring cleaning, compliance with legislative requirements relating to washpads was met. Simon believed that an efficient and effective recycling system was the answer. Having carried out some research on the subject and seen a system in operation locally at Sleaford golf club, Simon visited the ClearWater stand at BTME last year and was most impressed with the latest washpad water recycling system, its unique benefits and competitive price.

Simon was particularly interested to learn that a “self-install” option was available but explained that the site was not so straightforward. Not seen as an issue, ClearWater offered a free site inspection and this was carried out soon after the show. It was immediately clear that a ClearWater system could be easily installed and in the preferred location adjacent to the maintenance workshop. ClearWater provided a detailed plan and quotation and the order was placed.

The system was delivered and, with Jim Coleman acting as project manager, Simon Thorpe and the groundwork team carried out the installation following the detailed installation instructions provided by ClearWater. “It really was easy to do” said Simon.

More Than Washing Golf Machinery

To make the installation as unobtrusive as possible, the below ground system tank was installed behind the workshop and, with the washpad screened from view by specially designed splash-backs, very little is evident as our pictures show!

The ClearWater system is certainly well utilised and washes not only machines used on their own golf course, but also customers machines being serviced, Fineturf’s work vehicles and their own course construction and maintenance machines. Michael Baxter, Head Mechanic uses and looks after the system which includes dosing the system with micro-organisms. He is most impressed with ClearWater’s performance and said; “It’s certainly made life easy. It is so close to the workshop and there’s more than enough water pressure!” One machine, in for maintenance when ClearWater’s post-installation visit was made, was a GKB Combinator (a multifunctional fraise mowing machine), recently back from a job at a Premiership football club. Michael enthused; “This was caked in 2 – 3inches of mud and ClearWater blasts it of; better than a jet wash!” Compliments indeed.

Asked about the maintenance regime, his comment was: “It’s a doddle”. He ensures that the grass trap is emptied regularly and the pad kept clear and clean. Once a week he doses the system with the ClearWater micro-organisms. These micro-organisms (specially formulated and supplied by ClearWater) ensure that any oils, grease, fuel, etc. is treated and the water cleaned for recycling.

More Than Washing Golf Machinery

A Water Technology List (WTL) officially approved ClearWater system not only provides effective wash-off but ensures futureproof legal compliance by preventing groundwater pollution. It also saves thousands of gallons of precious (and increasingly expensive!) water by recycling. An added bonus is that the cost of the project (system and installation) can be offset against taxable profits under the ECA scheme, enabling further cost savings.

Be it golf, sports facilities, public schools, heritage properties, service and machinery dealers, ClearWater offers cost effective and compliant wash-off.  ClearWater Commercial, with its dedicated rinse package, offers the same effective wash-off with a superior finish and is ideal for hi-end vehicles, motor homes, etc.

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Etesia Appoint County Machinery

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Etesia Appoint County Machinery: Etesia UK has announced the appointment of Country Machinery Ltd, based in Driffield, East Yorkshire as its latest dealer.

Country Machinery, a family run business providing sales, services repairs and parts for all grounds care machinery, has enjoyed rapid growth since its establishment in 2012 – as managing director Karl Terry explains.

Etesia Appoint County Machinery

“Initially I started working for a local dealer and then I came out of the trade for a short period before setting up by myself. I started with a single garage, then went to a triple garage and as of September last year I took the plunge and rented a purpose-built retail unit. Also, last year Thomas Sissions, an agricultural engineer who has worked with Claas, McCormick, Case and New Holland, came in as my business partner.

“We’ve got dealerships with some great brands and the recent Etesia partnership is a sign of how far we have come. Everything is just going in the right direction.”

Karl, having been in the grounds care industry for the majority of his working history, revealed that Etesia is a brand he has been keen on adding to his portfolio for a long time and that a visit to SALTEX last year proved to be the ideal opportunity.

“We met Etesia at SALTEX and I approached Andrew Roberts (northern area sales manager) on the stand and explained that I was keen on adding the Etesia products to our portfolio. Everything just moved on from there.

“I’ve known the Etesia brand for a long time and the whole range of equipment is exceptionally good. They are like Swiss Army Knives – they are so versatile and are built well. The warranty terms are good, so it was a sort of no-brainer because it compliments everything else we have in our portfolio.”

With immediate effect Country Garden Machinery will now be supplying the complete range of Etesia pedestrian and ride-on mowers along with the Attila range of brushcutters and Karl believes that they will be a big hit with his customer base.

“When we first started we were only working in a 15 mile radius but now we are covering a 50 mile radius from base. Word of mouth is spreading in a big way and as well as domestic customers we are mainly covering the high end market where people are making a living from using machines like these. Every model in the Etesia range is ideal for the commercial market and I am confident that the machines will be hugely popular with existing and new potential customers.”

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.etesia.co.uk.

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