Last week I had the opportunity, along with other members of the industry press, to visit GreenMech who have their headquarters and factory in Alcester, Warwickshire.
It had been five years since I last visited the company and it was nice to catch up with both the founder of the company, Tony Turner, and his son, Jonathan - both directors of the company. Along with other key members of the company, they all made us feel most welcome.
Jonathan gave an introductory talk on his role with the company and what new developments had happened since our last visit. After a long career in the navy as an engineer Jonathan joined the company back in 2002 when it had around 25 staff. Following a lot of hard work, R&D and further investments, the company now boasts a workforce of over 100 members of staff based in the UK with a further ten based in Germany and France to help oversee the European sales of products and services.
Our day was centred around a recap on the size and scale of the business, a virtual visit of the factory through a detailed presentation by Martin Lucas of how the factory had changed to cope with the demand of their popular chippers and an outside demonstration of some of their latest products.
Martin also told us about how the company had managed to cope with three rather difficult challenges during the last five years. The first was gearing up to cope with the introduction of stage five engines into their products; the second was Brexit; and the third was of course the pandemic.
Covid has been the most challenging in terms of keeping their staff safe, whist at the same time keeping their customers happy. When Covid first struck, like most firms they were forced to stop work and with several of their suppliers being in the same boat, the company took the decision to close completely for eight weeks.
However, the government’s furlough scheme certainly helped GreenMech retain staffing levels and after a few weeks they were soon able to bring their staff back into the factory and begin making products again.
Today about 30% of their products go into the UK arena, and 70% is export with the biggest market Europe - particularly with France, Germany, and Spain, taking large volumes of their products.
The company now offer a range of over twenty chipper products ranging from the small CS80 and CS100 pedestrian chippers, the Arborist 150 and the new EVO 165 / 200 range of chippers. Finally, they also offer their tracked range of chippers which have become popular with rail network firms, allowing them to cope with slopes and rugged terrain.
Their business has grown substantially in the last ten years and like other manufactures, they are now turning their attention to producing battery powered products also. However, the challenge currently is finding a battery configuration that can produce enough power to run one of their chippers for several hours at a time. No doubt they will keep us posted on these future developments.
The company have also seen a major shift in how they market and promote themselves as a company, having recently taked on two key marketing personnel who have transformed the look and style of the company with new branding and a new website.
The final part of the day was to view a select range of chippers working, with Jonathan on hand to answer any questions about their performance and safety features. The movability and performance of their tracked chippers was certainly an eye opener and are now becoming a popular choice for contractors, especially those working on rail networks.
I would like thank Jonathan and Martin Lucas and the rest of the company’s staff for their hospitality during this very informative visit.
Honda Rugby Grounds Connected
Also last week I had the opportunity to join a RFU Webinar event to launch the new Honda Rugby Grounds Connected Programme. This new programme will help clubs gain the relevant information and support to help them maintain their facilities.
Good quality natural turf pitches are the lifeblood of rugby union and the maintenance and management of these pitches is crucial to the future of the game. In conjunction with their new partner Honda, the RFU has made a significant commitment to supporting this process through the Honda Rugby Grounds Connected programme.
The scheme will provide support and resources for club volunteers across the country, as well as developing grassroots engagement with the Honda Volunteer Recognition programme.
Honda Rugby Grounds Connected is a two-way communication channel between the RFU and rugby grounds volunteers. This new service via their website will offer on demand webinars, video resources, requests for face-to-face help from pitch advisors and more.
The webinar introduced the newly appointed GMA pitch advisors who will be working alongside a number of existing RFU volunteer pitch advisors (VPA) who will work together to offer a pitch advisory service across the length and breadth of England.
I personally, in my role of a VPA, will be looking forward to working with these new pitch advisors in the coming months to help promote this new service and start visiting rugby clubs to help them improve their facilities.
Jim Buttar, the RFU head groundsman, was also on hand to answer many of the questions posted by participating club groundsmen during the hour-long webinar.
Weather
As for the rest of the week, the recent stormy weather will have no doubt brought additional workloads to many, with the need to clear up any debris and damage caused by the storm.
With so much rainfall in recent weeks, many natural grass pitches and playing surfaces may be getting to field capacity and becoming more and more saturated. When these conditions prevail it best to keep off your playing surfaces. It only takes one game or training session when they are in this state will result in a loss of grass cover and damage.
See my recent article on winter games pitches.
