In June 2001, two leading Textron (Ransomes) distributors decided to relinquish the franchise and switch to John Deere. They were E T Breakwell of Solihull who had represented the brand for more than 40 years, and Henton and Chattell, Nottingham. Between them, the two dealers employed 130 people and had 120 years experience in the turf machinery business. Shortly after the announcement, Textron announced that they would be setting up their own branch operations in Solihull, Nottingham and Pontefract. This caused much unease amongst the Textron dealer network as they had already run their own dealership (Ransomes Scotland) for many years.

The foot and mouth epidemic of 2001 caused considerable disruption across the agricultural and associated industries. The outbreak started in February and lasted until September, with dealerships up and down the land reporting a severe downturn in business and a freeze on recruitment. A survey by LANTRA indicated that over 45% of dealers had experienced a reduction in sales of more than 50% from February to June, and 48% forecast their sales would drop further to the end of the year and almost 10% thought they would be out of business in twelve months. With movement severely restricted, service and parts business was particularly hard hit.

In the US, Garden Way Inc, manufacturer of Bolens and Troy-Bilt range of outdoor power equipment, filed for bankruptcy, eventually selling assets to MTD (who continued to use the Bolens name until 2010). It was a massive blow to the 550 workers at the Troy plant in New York state, the company having massively expanded in 1993 when it employed over 1500 people. It was being run by CEO Jorge Estrada, also a main board director of Chase Manhattan Bank, the company’s main financier. He raised $7 million in bonds from a local Development Agency to build a new manufacturing facility to build up the iconic Troy-Bilt brand. But it was too fast, too soon for an industry used to steady growth. Estrada left the company in 1997 with a huge agreed payment which almost brought Garden Way to its knees.

After many years of resisting any move into the OEM sector, in March 2001 Briggs and Stratton announced its purchase of Generac Portable Products, paying $55 million for the company but taking on over $200 million debt. B&S CEO John Shiely said “We have historically been only an engine supplier to OEMs, but we believe that the power products sector will evolve rapidly, and we are only mirroring other engine manufacturers such as Honda and Kawasaki” The biggest loser in the European market was Tecumseh who were major engine supplier to Generac.

In January 2001, it was announced that Ron Miller, for many years sales manager of the E P Barrus power equipment division is to join Stiga UK, the new marketing arm for Mountfield. He replaced Bryan Snell who is joining Handys of Swindon as sales manger to develop trade sales. Ron had left E P Barrus in 2000 to take up a new position with MTD Europe where he had been responsible for building the MTD network in mainland Europe.

In April 2001, Kubota UK announced that it was merging all its three sales divisions into a single division. Previously sales of tractor and outdoor power equipment, industrial and construction and the engine market were handled by three separate divisions. The single sales unit is to be run by Rene Orban (left) Kubota UK’s deputy managing director who said “Customers for tractors and mowers are increasingly becoming customers for excavators, generators or for Kubota engines”

2001 IN BRIEF
Electrolux purchase the Italian mower and lawn tractor manufacturer of Marrazini

Harry Leytham (left) is elected President of the Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA), with Keith Christian as chairman of the Outdoor Power Equipment Council (OPEC).

A few days after staging a dealer and press conference at Williams F1 HQ, J H Hancox announced the closure of its Kohler engine division.

In January, Richard Bishop left the Textron Turfcare team after 32 years at Ransomes, and Managing Director Harold Pinto resigned in November.

In July, Allen Power Equipment was appointed distributor of the Robomow mower made by Friendly Robotics. Meanwhile long-serving sales director Lance Bassett announced his retirement in October.

Against the odds and with full backing from participating dealers, Farm and Garden Machinery overcame travel worries to take a party of dealers to the Ariens factory in the US in November, just two months after the 11 September tragedy.

Service Dealer ran a Business Theatre at GLEE in September, speakers included Carl Herden, md of SABO, Tony Evans and Fiona Gebbett of Pan Publicity, Jim Green on internet trading and a training panel with Richard Trevarthen, Ian Jones, Derek Belcher and Nick Rosam

John Fish left Mountfield after 30 years, and Lawrence White joins as territory manager.

PROPHETIC HEADLINE OF 2001

During the year, Stuart Meek of Congleton Garden Machinery contributed his Dairy of a Season, including this prophetic headline from March 2001 issue

AND FINALLY:

LOCKDOWN FILMS FOR MOWER FOLK

In his first article for the magazine in April 2001, Steve Gibbs applied his degree in film studies, to compile a list of the best and most appropriate films for those in the lawnmower industry. Nineteen years on, there will have been others but his Top 5 at the time were:

1. Straight Story

2. Lawnmower Man

3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

4. Lawn Dogs

5. Forrest Gump

No doubt most of these are available on streaming services