Fentons Of Bourne
Fentons of Bourne, Price Turfcare’s local dealer for Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, won the Best Allied Trade Stand award at the Midlands Machinery Show held at Newark Showground on 20-21 November.
The Midlands Machinery Show is one of the fastest-growing annual events in the agricultural sector, bringing together farmers, agricultural contractors, and suppliers in a friendly and relaxed business environment. Over 300 exhibitors were displaying products and service in the covered halls, with the larger products situated outside on the showground.
Fentons of Bourne in conjunction with Price Turfcare, created a demonstration area where visitors could see displays highlighting the versatility of the tractor unit and associated attachments. The demonstration arena featured two Ventrac all-terrain compact tractors and 14 different attachments including a selection of mowing decks, trencher, stump grinder, blowers, power brushes, power rakes and more.
Glen Bellamy, managing director of Fentons said, “We were delighted and surprised to win this award. At mid-afternoon a team of show organisers turned up, mid-demonstration, and presented us with the award. Rupert Price and his team put in a lot of effort to make the demonstrations meaningful for the attendees and there was considerable interest in the products. The Ventrac was probably the smallest machine on display amongst all the large agricultural machinery, but it certainly punched above its weight.”
Rupert Price added, “We were invited to attend the show in conjunction with Fentons and it was too good an opportunity to pass by. It gave us some brilliant exposure for both the product and the brand to a new audience and that was our main aim. However, it did more than that; we came away with demo requests and the icing on the cake was winning the award.
“Although tiny by comparison to some of the huge tractors and other agricultural equipment, the visitors readily appreciated the design features of our machine and the fact that it can generate such consistent power from a sub-25 hp engine. I think they were also impressed with its manoeuvrability and versatility.
Definitely a very good event for us and it made two days standing outside in the cold, well worthwhile.”
“Many of the visitors to our stand were saying that they had seen us on social media and in the trade publications. Now they are wanting to see the equipment that is creating the buzz. At the close of the show, when we analysed the number of demonstration requests we had received, I was quite dumbfounded. With these added to those from TML, we are going to be extremely busy between now and the spring of 2020.
Tom Bailey, Area Sales Manager at RT Machinery, has won Price Turfcare’s Dealer Sales Achievement award and has been presented with £300 worth of store vouchers in appreciation of his efforts.
– Trevose Golf & Country Club, situated five miles west of Padstow in Cornwall, is the latest business to appreciate the benefits of owning a Ventrac 4500 compact tractor and attachments. Delivered by local dealer Devon Garden Machinery, the package included the Ventrac 4500 compact tractor, a Contour mowing deck and Power Rake.
The Power Rake is a great attachment and can reinstate pathways very easily and without the need to import new material to fill potholes. We have numerous paths around the property and it certainly reduces the maintenance hours. We also use the it when reinstating our turf nursery to rotovate the soil before reseeding. Although we didn’t purchase the Tough Cut deck or the Power Broom, they both performed superbly on demonstration and I will certainly be looking at them in the future. “The machine performs brilliantly on slopes; it can work safely up to 30 degrees, and we are now maintaining banked areas more frequently, including some that would only be strimmed twice a year. We can attach our Wiedenmann TerraRake to the rear 3-point linkage and rake the clippings to the bottom of the slopes for easier collection. Without doubt, this is a very versatile machine.”
East Anglia – The CGM Group is one of the latest landscape contractors to purchase a Ventrac package from Price Turfcare. Supplied by local dealer Ernest Doe & Sons, the package includes a Ventrac 4500 compact tractor and Finishing deck.
The Group employs over 180 staff working on a wide range of contracts from local authorities, agricultural processors, housing associations, schools and sports clubs through to one-off hard landscaping projects. CGM Group has bases in King’s Lynn, Norwich, Cambridge and Peterborough and regularly undertake projects in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk.
“We were in the market for a new machine for our contracts with large factories and distribution centres and saw the Ventrac at LAMMA. I spoke to Rupert Price and he arranged a demonstration, which took place in February. It performed really well and we took delivery soon after. At the moment it is used exclusively for these mowing contracts, but we’ll be looking at the Power Rake and Power Brush attachments later this year as we can see more applications that will suit our business. It’s certainly a versatile machine.”
The hand controls are intuitive and the articulating frame means we can get into tight areas, reducing additional strimming time. A tank of fuel lasts all day and once I’ve finished, I can clean it down with a light pressure washing. The deck flips up almost vertically, so that helps with cleaning, greasing and blade changing. Under the bonnet everything on the Kubota engine is easily accessible and I can easily access the radiator to blow it clear with a compressed air line.
Andy Seymour says that the Ventrac is a great machine to operate – comfortable, highly manoeuvrable and very easy to use!