Once again, the Ransomes Jacobsen Open Days proved to be a great success; the weather stayed fine and visitors were kept busy with educational events, factory tours, practical demonstrations and ride and drive trials.
The event took place on and around the company’s three-hole golf course, the RJ National, which after five years has matured superbly and offers a testing challenge of golf. It also provides an excellent facility for the company to showcase their complete range of machinery on their own doorstep.
For the avid golfers there was a nearest the pin competition, which proved very popular with the five hundred plus attendees. Played on the 3rd hole, which features an almost island green, many failed to find terra firma and had to retrieve their balls from the water.
The tented village provided stand spaces for a number of Ransomes Jacobsen's industry partners together with their Parts, Customer Care and Cutting Edge Training stands. An historic collection of Ransomes machinery and mowers lined the course from the earliest Budding patent to the current state-of-the-art range of modern equipment.
More than three hundred and fifty people took advantage of the factory tours, which enabled them to see, at first hand, the production lines in action and the degree of investment made over the past five years. The scale of the operations and the speed and quality of components and machinery being produced, surprised many.
BLEC were featured building brand new demonstration plots, enabling visitors to see laser levelling in progress and Henry Bechelet, Technical Sales Manager at Everris, gave a presentation on new fertiliser products, while Chas Ayres of Wiedennman held aeration workshops on the 7-a-side football pitch. Visitors also had the opportunity to take a shuttle to Trinity Park where they were able to test drive many of the company's large fleet of mowers, as well as using the new utility off road vehicle track.
Richard Comely, Director of Marketing and Product Management at Ransomes Jacobsen said “Many of the attendees commented that they thoroughly enjoyed the event and found it a really worthwhile experience. They went away with a better understanding of our company and the scale of the production facilities here at Ipswich. It was a tremendous effort by everyone concerned, especially our staff, our dealers and our business partners, who all contributed to an excellent couple of days.”
