Kubota Top Of The Class: Kubota UK’s partnership with Merchant Taylors’, one of the ‘Great Nine’ schools of England, is going from strength to strength after the school recently replaced 13 of its machines for 13 new machines through George Browns, who are the UK’s largest Kubota groundcare dealer.

With 285 acres of pitches, lakes and woodland to maintain, and a campus that boasts first class facilities, it is vital that Merchant Taylors’ ground maintenance team have the most reliable, hard working and best performing equipment on the market.

The responsibility of the maintenance and upkeep of this vast rural estate is led by grounds manager Richard Ayling, who has been working at the school for almost 23 years. To support the continuous maintenance of the grounds, Richard required a range of new groundcare machinery to update the schools existing Kubota inventory.

Richard said: “This school has developed an outstanding reputation as one of the best boys schools in the UK, both academically and through sporting achievements.  In order for our students to perform to the best of their ability, ensuring the sports surfaces are in perfect condition all year round is critical.

“We also host a number of top-tier sporting teams Including Middlesex County Cricket Club, Saracens rugby academy and a regional centre for England hockey. With such a vast range of pitches, this is by no means an easy task, so having the right machines that can help you do your job productively is key.

“The purchasing of the machines was straightforward after taking different factors into consideration. We need machines that can perform to the highest standards. Reliability is also important to avoid any costly downtime and the machines we use need to be comfy and simple to operate so my team can carry out their work efficiently.  That’s exactly why we chose Kubota.

“We have had a relationship with George Browns and Kubota for decades now and have never been let down.  This new machinery will significantly assist our team of ten groundcare staff, helping to increase productivity of our operations even further across a wide range of applications.”

As a testament to the reliability of Kubota machinery, the school has only just parted ways with their very first Kubota machine. The L225 had been used at the school for over 35 years, being one of the first compact tractors ever to be introduced by Kubota into the UK market by in the early 80s.

Fast forward to today, the school’s recent order includes two of Kubota’s market-leading diesel-powered RTV-X900 utility vehicles, three petrol-powered RTV-500s and two commercial mowers, the Kubota G21 ride-on and out front F3090.  Richard also purchased a number of Kubota’s popular L Series mid-sized tractors, including two L5040s and an L5740. The STW34, B2050 and M60 Series tractors completed Richard’s fleet replacement programme.

Due to the expanse and diversity of the estate at Merchant Taylors’ School, the addition of five new Kubota RTVs enables the efficient transportation of both personnel and equipment around the vast site. For example, the two RTV-X900’s are specifically used to tackle some of the more difficult terrain located outside the school site, such as the woodland and lake areas that cannot be accessed easily by foot or other vehicles.

The STW34 compact tractor is primarily used to undertake the majority of cricket renovations, ensuring pitches are kept in optimum condition. The ability to use a wide range of implements on this tractor allows for significant adaptability and flexibility across a multitude of tasks.

The powerful L5040 tractors are being used by the team to cater for heavier workloads as their extra lifting capacity of up to 1750KG makes them much more versatile. The range is an ideal choice for carrying out such tasks as scarifying, fertiliser spreading and seeding, plus verti-draining the land.

Richard continued: “It’s testament to the quality of the pitches we produce and maintain here at Merchant Taylors’ that other top sports teams use our facilities.  I am extremely proud of the work we do and the professionalism of my groundcare team.  We take real pride in making sure we can work towards and keep the school facilities to the high standard that independent schools demand. The very high standards of facilities in this sector are being set across the country by Grounds Managers and it is my responsibility to make sure Taylors’ is the same.

“There’s no doubt that partnerships like the one with have with George Browns and Kubota also play a substantial role in enabling us to carry out our work to the highest standards.  We are using high performance and quality machines from a trusted brand and have the first class back-up and support from George Browns when required.  We look forward to continuing this relationship in the future.”

For more information on Kubota and its extensive range of solutions for the groundcare sectors, or to find your local dealer, visit www.kubota.co.uk or call 01844 268000.

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