Firstly, thanks to everyone who got in touch regarding our initiative to give all new advertising revenue generated throughout the month of April to the Red Cross. It's heartening to have received such a positive response.
There is still plenty of time of course, if you feel like you would like your company to get involved. If you' want to place a digital advert next month, knowing that 100% of what you pay will go towards helping those suffering in Ukraine, please do contact Nikki who will be delighted to help.
Show time once again
Trying to put awful world events to one side for a moment, as an industry we're moving into a period where some of our major national get-togethers are on the brink of taking place in-person again. We have to wait until May for the rearranged LAMMA - who have announced a new addition to their show today - but next week it's BTME in Harrogate.
Usually kicking off the turf care year in January, it'll be interesting to see how many visitors make the trip to north Yorkshire in March - a time of year that I believe can be particularly busy for the golf greenkeepers whom the show is principally aimed at. Hopefully the timing will at least eliminate the threat of getting snowed in!
Service Dealer and TurfPro will be covering the exhibition, so do please say hello if you see us wondering around the halls.
To get myself back in the zone of experiencing a trade event in real life again (because SALTEX was a while ago now), last week I traveled into London to attend a great little show, aimed specifically at journalists working in the horticultural sector. Called the Garden Press Event and held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, it's open only to writers who represent newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs and the like, who are serving gardeners.
Unlike myself, most other attendees won't be working for a trade-only title. They will be sourcing information that they can pass on to their readers who will be members of the gardening public - or to put it another way, customers.
Pre-pandemic, I'd been attending the show every year and it had been encouraging to see more and more domestic machinery manufacturers exhibiting each time. Seeing them alongside the more garden centre-centric companies hawking their seeds, gloves, trowels and such like, I've always thought it is a good sign that companies which our specialist dealer readers represent, see value in attending this show. Promoting themselves to mainstream outlets that buying customers will actually read and pay attention to, can only be a positive, pro-active move.
However, whether it was because last week was the first one back following the enforced break or for some other reason, it was slightly disappointing to discover fewer companies who represent the machinery side of the domestic sector were there this time around. But those that were, all had a positive message to get across to the journos in attendance.
Battery to the fore
A couple of editions back this message was very much about robotic mowers, with most machinery companies selling the benefits of their version of the technology. Whilst those machines were still in evidence this year, it was battery-powered tools in particular that were very much to the fore. It felt that manufacturers knew if lawnmowers were to gain any column inches in a mainstream publication, pushing their environmental credentials would be their way in,
Stiga's Gary Philpott shows Service Dealer owner Duncan Murray-Clarke, around the new Gyro
Of course we know just how hard it's been lately for dealers to get hold of any stock to meet the demand seen from customers - especially of the cordless variety. I must say though, whether it was simply a case of bravado when talking to the press, the message we heard from several suppliers last week was that things were getting better and supply was coming back on stream.
But does this sound right to you? Please feel free to let us know about your recent experiences with getting hold of supply for your dealership in the comments below.
We'll have a bit more detail about some of the machinery seen at the show in the upcoming issue of Service Dealer magazine, but it was good to see Cobra, Husqvarna, STIHL, Stiga, Toro UK, Barrus, Makita, Ambrogio all telling their stories to the writers in attendance.
Toro UK's Craig Hoare speaking with Service Dealer editor, Steve Gibbs
It was also interesting to catch up with Ken Brewster, ex of Husqavrna, in his new role working for BioScapes, the self-contained eco-systems designed to encourage biodiversity in residential settings. This endeavour was very much on trend with the environmentally conscious message that was being spread around the stands.
Steve with Ken Brewster, ex of Husqvarna, now with BioScapes
Hopefully next year a few more machinery companies will choose to re-attend the show. I do think it's a good opportunity for your suppliers to place their goods in front of the people who write about gardening in places that the buying public will actually pay attention to. Machinery used to tend the garden often appears to be overlooked in popular coverage of what is an incredibly well-liked pastime.
Any chance to publicise the specialist machinery sold by expert dealers, should be embraced with gusto.
