Industry Update

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Lied’s Nursery won a Merit Award for Northern Doerr.

Lied’s and Bruce Co. Earn PLANET Awards

Lied’s Nursery Co., Sussex, Wis., and Bruce Co., with locations in Middleton, Milwaukee and Racine, Wis., received awards at PLANET’s Annual Environmental Improvement Awards. Lied’s won a Merit Award for its project “Northern Doerr,” which involved designing and constructing a landscape for a home in Fish Creek, Wis. Bruce Co. received a Distinction Award in the Erosion Control/Ecological Restoration category for using The Living Wall to address a serious erosion problem.

Wright Names Administrator, Award Recipient

Wright Commercial Products named Jillian Jensen as sales and marketing administrator. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from George Mason University and has 15 years’ of management experience, primarily in sales and marketing.

Wright presented its 2008 Distributor of the Year Award to PACE, Inc., an outdoor power equipment distributor based in Plymouth, Mich. PACE earned Wright’s Market Expansion and Salesman of the Year awards in 2007 and was Wright’s 2006 Distributor of the Year.

Triton Adds Build-A-Trailer Tool to Web Site

Triton Trailers has added a Build-A-Trailer tool to its Web site at www.tritontrailers.com. The tool shows users how a trailer will look with various accessories, offering three views—both exterior sides and the interior view. A detailed shopping list changes as accessories are chosen.

NaEx Announces New Uses for Soyaplex

NaEx Corp.’s all-natural Soyaplex fertilizer is now available and labeled for use on commercial landscapes, sports fields, home lawns, parks and all other turf applications. It also has agricultural labeling for use on food and nonfood crops in conventional and organic production. Soyaplex is made from 100 percent non-GMO, food-grade soybeans.

Paladin Names Ceder as VP & General Manager

Paladin appointed Mats Ceder to the position of vice president and general manager for the demolition and recycling division. He replaces Bruce Bacon, who resigned to pursue other interests. Ceder joined Paladin in 2008 as director of business development in the heavy construction division. During his career, he has held leadership roles in sales, marketing and general management, as well as operational assignments.

John Deere donated this 75D excavator, along withthree others, to Northwest Iowa Community College.

Deere Donates Excavators to Community College

John Deere donated three preproduction John Deere excavators and a Hitachi excavator to Northwest Iowa Community College after the equipment sustained severe flood damage at a Cedar Falls, Iowa, business. Students in heavy equipment operations and maintenance classes were able to clean them up and work on them to gain hands-on experience.

Kioti Announces 5-Paw Certified Dealerships

Kioti Tractor unveiled a new 5-Paw Dealer Excellence Certification Program at its annual dealer meeting. The program features five evaluation areas: sales, service and parts, customer satisfaction, issue resolution and facility appearance. The following dealers have earned certification for the program’s first year (October 1, 2008, to September 30, 2009): Atrac Co., LLC; Burr Farm Machine, Inc.; C. Smith & Son Farm Equipment; County Tractor & Equipment; Equipements G. Gagnon, Inc.; Hepson Equipment, Inc.; Holtsclaw Sales & Service; Hoover Tractor, Inc.; Irrigation-Mart, Inc.; Little Tractor & Equipment, Inc.; Lynch Equipment Co., LLC; Michigan Iron & Equipment, LLC; Mountaineer Power Equipment; Off Duty Ranch, Inc.; Paige Tractors, Inc.; Perryville Outdoor Products; R.E. Egger Truck & Machine; Riley Equipment Sales; Rivera’s Machinery, Inc.; S&R Turf & Irrigation Equipment; S and W Feed & Supply, Inc.; Tri-County Supply, Inc.; and Whittemore & Sons.

Kendra and Barry Nichols withtheir new Next Lazer Z.

News from Exmark

Barry Nichols, a part-time landscaper and full-time firefighter from Loveland, Ohio, was the winner of Exmark’s Next Lazer Z giveaway at the 2008 GIE+EXPO. The prize package included a trip to Exmark’s headquarters in Beatrice, Neb., where Nichols watched his mower roll down the production line. Nichols and his wife, Kendra, also toured Exmark’s facilities and spoke with employees.

Exmark announced that it will ship all Next Lazer Z and Next Lazer Z AS mowers to its distributors and dealers in returnable steel crates. The crates, which are manufactured by Wright Metal Products, Simpsonville, S.C., will be collected from dealers and reused.

AGCO Opens North American Tractor Assembly Centers

AGCO Corp. has opened three tractor assembly centers in the United States near Baltimore, Md., Houston, Texas and Tacoma, Wash. The centers are taking tractor and parts inventory from AGCO manufacturing facilities around the world for the AGCO, Challenger, Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra brands.

Shindaiwa sponsored a Hand-Held Power University at GIE+EXPO.

Shindaiwa Sponsors Hand-Held Power University

Shindaiwa, along with Oregon Cutting Systems and the Equipment & Engine Training Council, sponsored a Hand-Held Power University at the 2008 GIE+EXPO. It featured 15-minute presentations that were applicable to all brands of equipment, including “Hand-Held Product Safety” and “Saw Chain Anatomy & Basic Maintenance.” Attendees had the opportunity to enter Shindaiwa’s Power Passport promotion to win new equipment and gas cards.

Great American Cleanup Produces Results

Keep America Beautiful announced that the Great American Cleanup, its annual campaign to clean up communities in all 50 states, resulted in a record 48,000-plus gardens, green spaces and xeriscapes created in 2008. This is the first year the organization tracked the number of gardens created. Previously, participating organizations kept track of the number of trees, flowers, bulbs and shrubs planted. The movement to create gardens in 2008 involved public-private partnerships between businesses and governments at the national, state and local levels.

UPI Restructures, Hires Managers

United Phosphorus, Inc. has instituted changes designed to improve its ability to serve the marketplace and its customers. It is decentralizing national account management, improving customer service and supply chain management and instituting a new UPI account management model. The national account management team will be led by Wayne Smith, vice president of sales. He will oversee four regional sales directors. Gary Kreckmann, director of business services, will oversee customer service and act as interim Northern regional sales director. Greg Hutchison will guide the supply chain management efforts as director.

Brian Cardin was named the Southern regional sales director. He has more than 20 years of sales and sales management experience, having worked for Sipcam Agro USA, Estes, UAP, Novartis Crop Protection and Bayer Corp.

Bob Van Arkel has become the northern region territory manager for aquatic products. He has almost 10 years’ experience with UPI in the area of crop protection products.

Casey Daniel has joined UPI as an ag account manager responsible for New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Previously, he worked for EduCorp Training & Consulting. He has more than 15 years of industry experience.

Kevin Gaskins has joined the company as an ag account manager responsible for Tennessee, North and South Carolina and southern Virginia. He has over 30 years of experience, having worked most recently for Drexel Chemical Co.

TenCate Wins IFAI Award

TenCate Geosynthetics North America received the 2008 Industrial Fabrics Association International Award of Excellence for its project entitled “Swamp and Stream Crossing Airmail Drive” using Mirafi HP370. The project involved surface upgrades made to geotextile-reinforced soil embankments. The International Achievement Awards recognize worldwide excellence in design, technological innovation and excellence within the specialty fabrics industry.