As Rigby Taylor this year celebrates its centenary anniversary executive chairman Chris Clark says that all customers – at facilities of every size and of every kind - will continue to benefit from the company’s ethos of continual improvement.
Chris Clark
“We will not be resting on our laurels as the company enters the next 100 years,” he says. “We will always seek to offer effective turf solutions based on value-for-money products that are supported by a team of turf professionals who offer unrivalled turf care technical knowledge and expertise – all underpinned by superb levels of delivery and customer service.”
He continues: “Irrelevant of the volume and frequency of the orders placed, every customer will always be treated similarly. Every customer is important, whether it’s a volunteer cricket groundsman who orders a few bags of grass seed each year or an elite stadium where, for example, we work together on integrated turf maintenance programmes with all the products and expertise that will entail.
“Going forwards, the end result has always to be the same – first-class products offered at the most cost-effective rates, delivered on time and backed up by a highly-experienced, professional team.”
Grass Seed breeding trials at Les Alleuds research faclity
In the eight years since Chris picked up the company reins and instigated a number of strategic, across-the-board improvements – “not least by addressing the historical view that Rigby Taylor is a company that deals only with the ‘top-end’ of the market” – he reflects that the ‘hearts and minds’ process of the company ‘re-inventing’ itself included a complete appraisal of the product range.
“The industry [customers] have diverse needs; the demands of a village bowls club are different to those of, say, a Premier League ground. They will all have differing agronomic requirements and, of course, different budgets. What we had to do was to ensure we could provide highly effective solutions for all possible situations that would continually exceed our customers’ expectations - a one-stop shop for turf solutions, if you like.
“Indeed, while our product development – and brand/product additions via acquisitions or commercial partnerships – is an ongoing process, sustainability is increasingly to the fore. With certain products/chemicals being withdrawn, it is vital that sports turf is fitter and stronger to fend off the problems. Prevention is always better than cure, and this is where our product development and applications expertise come in. The demand for these attributes will only increase and we are ensuring that we are best placed to meet that now and in the future.”
Rigby Taylor's Derek Cunliffe (left) with Andy Gray of Southampton FC
Importantly, too, he says, customer expectations are increasingly growing: “Gone are the days of across-the-board advance ordering; many users now request products on a weekly basis, partly to enable them to respond to the weather (with an application of wetting agent or fertiliser, perhaps) and to enable them to better manage their budgets. So, we must always be in a position to satisfy users’ needs.”
Chris concluded, “Throughout our 100-year history Rigby Taylor has never stood still and especially during recent times has moved forward in strides. My ongoing quest is to guarantee that we’ll continue to do just that!”