Press Release
Turney Group have signed a new agreement with their long term partner Ransomes Jacobsen to expand their territory to the South and West of their existing area of responsibility.
This significant opportunity further strengthens the long established partnership between the company and Ransomes Jacobsen, and will serve to grow market share of the respective businesses through their experienced sales team and excellent aftersales capabilities.
Turney Group offers a high quality portfolio of groundcare brands, including Iseki, New Holland, Amazone Groundcare, Dennis, Sisis, Stihl and Husqvarna which compliment Ransomes Jacobsen to suit all professional groundcare and fine turf needs.
View the latest from Turney Groundcare here.
We sat down with Dealer Principle, Phil Bush, to hear more about the exciting news.
Can you give us a brief overview of the history between Turney Group and Ransomes Jacobsen?
Ransomes and Turney’s have had a relationship for over 60 years, originally as the Ransome brand and then in the early 90s when the Ransomes Jacobsen company came together we then had the relationship with the Ransomes commercial and Jacobsen golf course equipment. Our relationship has been as a main dealer for them within our Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire territory for over 30 years with both brands.
What does our portfolio of Ransomes Jacobsen clients look like now and where are you looking to take that in the next few years?
Currently within the territory, we have two very different market segments; our golf course Jacobsen client base, who are very specialist as far as fine turf is concerned, and then the Ransomes commercial customers, local authority contractor commercial grass cutting.
Our future is to operate across a larger area of the UK, from where we currently operate, catering for those two very specific types of markets; Jacobsen golf and Ransomes commercial. They are very different users, very different operators, and place very different demands on the machines, so we have to have a specialism in both golf and commercial.
What is the most exciting machine from both sectors that you are looking forward to taking to customers in the new territory?
With Ransomes, we have a very good range of commercial rotary and flail machines. The flail units have come on leaps and bounds within the last few years and we are at the forefront with those. Our outfront rotary is an excellent machine, the HR380, but we do have a fully electric outfront rotary coming, which is proving to be an excellent piece of kit as far as power, performance and run time is concerned. In that sector we are excited to see that machine.
On the golf side, with Jacobsen product, we already have the Eclipse 360 which is proving to be a really good fit for all golf courses, as far as the amount of greens they can cut on one charge. It’s also proving to be a very reliable machine and it’s settings can be tailored to exactly what the course manager needs on their greens; with some great features such as programable speed and clip rate, completely fluid free and the swing out centre unit.
Further to that, we are excited about the SLF1 fairway machine coming through this year, which is a fully battery, 5 unit machine which will give us the same performance we are already enjoying in the Eclipse 360. This machine, outside of golf, will also fit into fine turf, whether it be football, rugby, or other applications. If customers have a noise issues, like colleges or office complexes, and they want high quality turf, then the Eclipse 360 and the SLF1 will fit that application.
Do you foresee any challenges with the new expansion in the next year? And how do you plan to overcome those challenges?
Our challenges will be finding the right number and calibre of staff to help us roll out the Turney experience to new customers. We know we can do a good job, we know we can back up the product, we know the needs and demands of the industry, but we need good, reliable people who can get out amongst the customer base and give the level of Turney service that we know is important to the customer.
Any final thoughts?
Its exciting times for us a company. The great thing is that everybody is massively on board with this project, and we are going into this with our eyes open. We know it’s going to be big challenge and we know its going to be hard work, but the whole team is massively up for it. I think it’s going to be an exciting time for us over the next 5-10 years as we move into the new area making new friends and acquaintances along the way.
