Industry Update

image_pdf

New Holland Construction Sponsoring Extreme Dream 2011 Contest

New Holland Construction is sponsoring the Extreme Dream 2011 contest, and the winning entry will be provided with a free L218 skid steer loader. Simply tell us about your biggest, best and/or most challenging landscape project, and three winners will be selected to receive a trip to the GIE+EXPO trade show in Louisville, Ky., where the grand prize winner will be announced in the New Holland Construction booth. Enter your project today at www.newholland.com.


MESA designed this award-winning Central Park in Grand Prairie, Texas.

MESA-Designed Park Honored

Central Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, designed by MESA, was honored with the 2011 Planning Excellence Award from the Texas Recreation & Park Society for its master plan and landscape design. Each year, TRAPS recognizes one park or recreation planning project that displays a high degree of professional analysis, quality planning principles and organizational or community-wide value. MESA is based in Dallas, Texas, and is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2011.


One of the prizes in the BigDog Days of Spring Promotion is a mower.

BigDog Offers Promotion

BigDog Mowers is conducting its BigDog Days of Spring Promotion through May 31, 2011. Customers who test drive a BigDog mower at participating dealers will receive a “Bite This” T-shirt and qualify to win one of several prizes, including a BigDog C-142 mower, Visa gift cards, GPS, flip video camera, Apple iPod and Apple iPad. Visit www.bigdogmowers.com for more information.

Rain Bird Announces New Partnership

Rain Bird announced that it has partnered with The Greenwater Foundation in support of its Groundwater Guardian Green Site program, an initiative that encourages the sustained use of groundwater-friendly practices and recognizes green space managers for their groundwater stewardship. As a program partner, Rain Bird will work with the foundation to raise awareness of the importance of groundwater protection and help green space managers identify and implement groundwater-friendly practices.

Exmark Forms Alliance

Exmark has entered into a partnership with Innovative Equine Marketing, LLC and its Equine Savings program. Based in Georgetown, Ky., Innovative Equine Marketing provides product support to equine facilities and tracks in North America. Through this new relationship, individuals in the equine industry will have access to preferred pricing on Exmark mowing equipment, as well as Toro turf and landscape maintenance products and precision irrigation solutions.

W.R. Meadows Website Relaunched

W.R. Meadows launched its new construction company website at www.wrmeadows.com The website has been redesigned to give it a more contemporary feel, including more project photos, a product spotlight for new products and new social media features. All the content over the years is still available, including access to product data sheets, material safety data sheets, project profiles and more.

New Agreement for Torotrak & MTD

A new agreement between Torotrak plc and outdoor power equipment manufacturer MTD replaces their joint venture, Infinitrak, with restructured license agreements that will allow Torotrak to offer variable drive technology to other companies in the outdoor power equipment and compact tractor sectors. Torotrak develops full toroidal traction drive technology, with customers in Europe, North America, India and Japan.


Rick Thomas, left, and Nathan Antons.

SourceOne Names Dealer of the Year

Nathan Antons, national sales manager for SourceOne OPE, presented Virginia Outdoor Power Equipment Co., Fairfax, Va., with the Dealer of the Year award. Rick Thomas, general manager, accepted the award.

Turf Revolution Announces Contest Winners

Turf Revolution announced the three winners of its $10,000 Big Green Giveaway contest in support of the green industry across North America. The winners were drawn from thousands of entries from Canada and the U.S. Ted Brodie of Brodies Ltd. in Strathroy, Ont., won first prize, $5,000 in Turf Revolution granular organic product. Alan White of Turf Systems in Burlington, Ont., and Marcel Lafleche of Enviro Masters Lawn Care in Ottawa/Nepean, Ont., received $3,000 and $2,000 in organic product, respectively.

News from Stihl

Stihl, Inc. announced that Kris Williams has been promoted to the position of product information manager. He has been with Stihl since 2003, most recently serving as a product information specialist. Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in managerial business from Virginia Wesleyan College.

Distributor Bryan Equipment Sales, Inc. celebrated a milestone in its history as its 5 millionth unit, a BG 55 hand-held blower, was sold to Stihl dealer Bair’s, Inc. The dealership will receive a BR 600 Stihl Magnum backpack blower signed by Fred Whyte, president of Stihl, and Rick Bryan IV, president of Bryan Equipment.


Bison formed a new company to offer landscape furnishings.

Bison Acquires BRP Line

Bison, Inc. acquired the BRP Enterprises product line. The new company, brp by bison LLC, will continue to provide the landscape furnishings BRP was known for over the past decade. The product line includes bench seating, chairs, tables, bike racks and trash receptacles.

Bobcat Features New Equipment

Bobcat Co. used CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 to launch four new M-Series loaders and three M-Series excavators, and showcase a variety of interactive displays. The new equipment models included the S750 and S770 skid steer loaders, T750 and T770 compact track loaders, A770 all-wheel steer loader, E32 and E35 extendable-arm excavators and E55 excavator. Bobcat also debuted new “Bobcat Advantage” competitive comparison videos, and the host of the videos, Perry Rust, was on-site to assist customers as they accessed the videos with the popular JAGTAG mobile marketing platform.

MLB Groundskeepers Renovate Ball Field

For the 13th consecutive year, 48 Major League Baseball groundskeepers from 26 clubs gathered for a two-day symposium that culminated with a field renovation project at a local ball field. The three-day event, held this year in Austin, Texas, was sponsored by Turface Athletics, in partnership with Toro, Covermaster and the Baseball Tomorrow Fund. Austin Reagan High School was this year’s renovation site.


CNH Parts & Service hosted the 2011 Trade Fair in Tennessee.

CNH Hosts Trade Fair

CNH Parts & Service held its 2011 Trade Fair at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. The event brought together nearly 2,500 agricultural and construction equipment dealers from across the U.S. and Canada. The event gave dealers and their employees a chance to see the latest products from CNH Parts & Service, and to meet with the sales, marketing, training, engineering and supplier teams who support the dealerships that represent the CNH family of brands: New Holland Agriculture, New Holland Construction, Kobelco, Case IH and Case Construction.

Featherlite Dealers Honored

Featherlite Trailers honored members of its dealer network at its 2011 Dealer Awards Banquet, held during the annual two-day Featherlite Dealer Meeting in Rochester, Minn. Boespflug Trailers of Dickinson, N.D., received the Top Gun Award as the top trailer dealer in 2010. Other award recipients included American Trailers, LLC, Mineral Wells, W.Va.; Allan Dale Industries Ltd., Red Deer, Alb.; Belore Trailer Sales, Mount Elgin, Ont.; Central Iowa Featherlite Trailer Sales, LLC, Bondurant, Iowa; Circle Diamond Ranch Supply, Mandan, N.D.; Gold Medal Trailer Sales, Merrill, Wis.; Golden Gait Trailers LLC, Concord, N.C.; Roeder Bros., Inc., Bellevue, Iowa; and Twin Cities Featherlite, Elko, Minn.

Sod Solutions Hires Tweedy

Sod Solutions, Inc., Charleston, S.C., has hired Bryden Tweedy to head up its website development and creative design division. He will construct and manage websites for customers and will oversee Sod Solutions graphic design enterprises. A 2008 graduate of Appalachian State University, Tweedy spent the last two years as a software quality assurance analyst at Blackbaud.

LiveRoof Showcases Green Roof Solution

LiveRoof, LLC exhibited its solution for modular green roof design at the International Roofing Expo. Compatible with many different roof systems and single-ply flat roofing membranes, LiveRoof modules are made with 100 percent recycled plastics. Using Soil Elevator technology, the modules create an uninterrupted layer of soil and vegetative surface extending above, and across, all modules. This unifies the soil over the entire roof and conceals the modules, unseen under the soil and plants even during dormancy. Moisture Portals establish soil-to-soil contact between modules.

Stone Joins Jacobsen

Ric Stone has joined Jacobsen as vice president of sales. He will be responsible for leading sales efforts in North, Central and South America, as well as customer service and parts support. Stone previously served as senior vice president and general manager of operations for Textron Financial. He earned a BBA in finance from Georgia State University and an MBA from Emory University.

Kenworth Names 2011 Dealer Council

Kenworth Truck Co. has named its 2011 Kenworth Dealer Council members. The council strives to promote and maintain a strong dealer network by enhancing program consistency so that every Kenworth dealer provides a superior level of customer support. The 2011 council members are chairman Dan Penksa, Tom Bertolino, Brett Hartman, Brent Leach, Bob Mitchell, Jim Moeller and Tim Murphy. Jim Hartman serves as the Kenworth ATD line representative, and Kyle Treadway currently serves as the American Truck Dealers chairman.

United Rentals Named Official Rental Partner of PGA

United Rentals, Inc. announced that the company has been named the official equipment rental partner of the PGA of America through 2014. About 10,000 golf facilities nationwide that are staffed by PGA professionals will now be able to benefit from expert advice and a national account relationship with United Rentals for quality equipment services. The new licensing agreement also features United Rentals serving as co-presenting sponsor of the PGA Winter Championships and as a supporting sponsor of Golf Retirement Plus.