Tag Archive for: Manchester

Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings

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Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings: The team at STIGA is discovering just how remarkable their robot mowers are when it comes to maintaining sports grounds — and rugby pitches are no exception. When the latest recruits, Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns, joined the ranks at Manchester Rugby Club, it was a clean-cut conversion straight between the posts.

Tim Holmes of Manchester Rugby Club shared:

“Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns joined the Manchester Rugby Club Grounds team back in October 2024, having signed from STIGA. As part of the partnership, STIGA provided full training on how to get the most from the mowers — and they made an immediate impact. Their work ethic has been incredible! They operate day and night, seven days a week, and we saw an instant improvement in the quality of the pitches.”

Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings

Manchester Rugby Club Welcomes New Signings

As a volunteer-run organisation, Manchester Rugby Club relies on a dedicated team of individuals who give their time freely. With four full-size rugby pitches and additional training areas to maintain — serving over 400 members every week — pitch upkeep is a huge task.

“The arrival of Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns has been a game-changer,” added Holmes. “They now manage two of our pitches, including the main stadium and a floodlit training pitch. This has significantly lightened the load on our volunteers while massively improving the quality of the turf. The grass never gets too long, there’s no unsightly clippings, and the lines they mow are incredibly sharp — the pitches look and play better than ever.”

The improvements haven’t gone unnoticed. A recent visit from the local Grounds Management Association advisor brought high praise:
“They told us our stadium pitch is one of the best in the North West — and the condition of the grass is excellent,” said Holmes.

The club couldn’t be happier with the STIGA partnership.
“We can’t thank STIGA enough. Their mowers are outstanding, and the STIGA app is so easy to use — we can always see what the boys are up to. Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns are now firmly part of the Manchester Rugby Club family — and long may that continue.”

In true rugby fashion, Mow Marler and Cutney Lawns even celebrated their arrival at the club with matching tattoos. The STIGA team was delighted — and agreed they’ve never looked more handsome.

You can read more about STIGA’s autonomous robot mowers and other STIGA products here: www.stiga.com/uk/

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GGM Group complete Manchester 10K

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GGM Group complete Manchester 10K: The GGM Group have demonstrated that they always go the extra mile – by taking on the Manchester 10k in the name of their company charity last weekend.

While for most of us, Bank Holidays weekends are for relaxation, a team from the firm took on the challenge as part of the GGM Group’s wider commitment to The North West Air Ambulance.

GGM Group complete Manchester 10K

GGM Group complete Manchester 10K

The five-strong team from GGM Group took to the streets of Manchester in the AJ BELL Great Manchester run, with fund-raising over 70% of their £10000 target.

The GGM Group selected North West Air Ambulance as their group charity for 2024, and employees are taking part in many different activities to raise vital funds for this worthy cause. The charity exists to bring the hospital to patients with a vision to fly the most advanced medical crew and equipment to people when and where most needed. It is entirely funded by charitable donations. The charity is currently attempting to raise £12 million to co-incide with their 25th birthday year.

Rebekah Bullen Calderbank from the charity said:

“The Great Manchester Run is a fantastic event for us, and this year was our biggest yet with over 100 runners! We are so grateful for all the support from GGM and for taking part in the event. It was great to see them on the day, at our stand in the charity village. They have raised an incredible amount so far which will help us continue saving lives across the North West”.

The GGM Group consists of two businesses across two depots in Haycock and Colne. GGM Group is a specialist supplier of tractors and high-quality professional land-based equipment for commercial and domestic use. Servicing the North West and Yorkshire, it supplies a range of products from leading franchises including Kubota, Baroness and Amazone. PSD Groundscare is the national distributor of specialist landscaping equipment, including Canycom, Eliet, Koppl and SABO.

Chris Gibson, Managing Director of The GGM Group completed the challenge. He said:

“The Manchester 10k was a great event and I am very proud of all of the team. I personally hadn’t run in over 40 years and a year ago decided that the 10k would be my target. I was really pleased to  cross the finish line in 1 hour 16 minutes, with the support of a great team.

“It was great that a number of our team and families took the time to come into Manchester to support the runners.

“It’s a key part of our ethos at GGM Group to give something back to the community and we are delighted to be working with the North West Air Ambulance this year. We’d like to extend a huge thank you to all our suppliers,  customers, families and friends who’ve generously donated in support of our efforts

You can support this worthy cause by donating at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/the-ggm-group.

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Unveiling of RoviMo at Manchester City

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Unveiling of RoviMo at Manchester City: The GGM Group have hosted the prestigious UK unveiling of a ground-breaking Cylinder Cassette Mower for Professional Sports Turf.

The event, which was held at Manchester City FC Training Ground, showcased the RoviMo robotic mower for sports turf, saving potentially thousands of man hours in the maintenance of sports fields and stadiums.

Unveiling of RoviMo at Manchester City

Unveiling of RoviMo at Manchester City

The day was attended by several Premier League football clubs and highlighted a real game changer for the maintenance of professional sports turf and a glimpse of the future as guests which included Groundsman from a number of other premier league football clubs, turf advisors and professionals had the opportunity to see the machine in action and speak to the manufacturer first-hand.

The RoviMo is the world’s first intelligent electric vehicle capable of mowing patterns autonomously according to the guidelines of national football associations, UEFA, or FIFA, precisely and over the shortest distance, horizontally, vertically and with chessboard pattern, at the touch of a button. Supervision of the mowing process by an employee is not necessary.

Operated simply and efficiently remotely via an app, RoviMo® can also be used for mowing other large green areas, and will be developed to be utilised by golf courses. RoviMo® is a multifunctional equipment carrier, which will be able to carry out other work processes such as maintenance of artificial turf, line marking and various other labour-intensive tasks.

GGM Group Sales Andy Melville explains more:

“The event was a huge success, and we were thrilled to unveil the RoviMo to some of the UK’s leading football clubs at such a superb venue, where our guests were given a real glimpse of the future. RoviMo is the future of turfcare and it adds state of art technology to our portfolio, allowing us to offer customers the next generation of intelligent mowers.

“We are thrilled to have been involved from the early stages of development of these new innovative machines; they are the perfect addition to our product range as we continue to grow in the sports ground sectors”.

RoviMo is currently in its final stages of development and the event provided an opportunity for industry professionals to see the pre-production prototype first hand and meet the manufacturers in person, as well as having a two-way dialogue on the many ways in which it will benefit the industry.

Daniel Lewis from Manchester City said:

“The event was a great success and the new machine certainly lived up to expectations. The quality of the cut and the neat finish are essential boxes that needed to be ticked, and the RoviMo did just that.

“The fact that the attendees from other clubs were willing to offer comments freely on future development of the machine demonstrated that the interest is there. The machine could benefit the industry by saving on the continuous labour of grass cutting, allowing staff to get on with the more intricate demands of the job.”

The GGM Group announced they have signed a distribution agreement with Swiss manufacturer Ronovatec back in January this year.

The GGM Group, based in Colne, Lancashire, has a rich heritage and proactively seeks new solutions on an ongoing basis. The new deal with Ronovatec marries perfectly with its strong values of professionalism, innovation, and providing progressive solutions that support its commitment to work towards carbon neutrality.

Andy Melville continued:

“Over recent years there has been a trend for turfcare professionals to increase their green credentials and RoviMo not only offers this but achieves reduced cost and increased efficiency simultaneously. A fully charged RoviMo will mow circa 16’000 m2 in 5-6 hours depending on pattern and terrain, all without employee supervision of the mowing process and saving many man hours. In addition, RoviMo® is fully electric, CO2-free, and autonomous with low noise pollution and is therefore ecologically sustainable and economically unbeatable. It’s a win-win for the customer and the future of sports turf maintenance has never looked more exciting”.

A video of the event can be viewed on the GGM Groundscare YouTube channel or by using:

https://youtu.be/Xo48htmG_pA

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Manchester Grammar School’s New Hockey Surface

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Manchester Grammar School’s New Hockey Surface: Staff and students at The Manchester Grammar School, the largest independent day school for boys in the UK, are over the moon after many years of planning has seen their dreams for an elite hockey pitch become a reality. GreenFields were handpicked from a number of other companies for the construction of the school’s new hockey pitch along with adjacent tennis courts, which were all completed in time for Christmas.

The top spec water based hockey pitch features GreenFields TX Elite, a product which has seen many of the best players in the world compete on it at tournaments such as the 2017 European Hockey World Championship. Classified by the FIH (International Hockey Federation) as the Global Elite standard, which is the optimum surface type for competitive hockey tournaments, GreenFields TX Elite provides the ultimate smooth playing surface combining high playing and ball speed, incredible precision and control.

Manchester Grammar School's New Hockey Surface

Dr Martin Boulton, High Master at The Manchester Grammar School commented: “The new hockey pitch and tennis courts are absolutely fantastic and will give our boys the opportunity to play on world-class surfaces of the quality used by international athletes, helping our boys flourish and develop their sporting potential. They are a great addition to our School.”

The 6,576m² elite hockey pitch was completed with a Trocellen ProGame XC 7008 shock pad for maximum comfort and safety with irrigation achieved by pop up sprinklers. The facility also includes a 3,560m² tennis surface featuring six compact courts.

Paul Milton, Commercial Director at GreenFields UK said: “We are delighted to have installed an international level water based playing surface at the prestigious independent school – The Manchester Grammar School and are happy to see that the pupils are getting full use of it already. This impressive sports facility will further strengthen our North West portfolio providing an elite case study for GreenFields for the future.”

Manchester Grammar School's New Hockey Surface

Upon completion of the new hockey pitch and tennis courts, GreenFields arranged for professional photography and drone footage to be taken to support the school in their marketing materials.

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