Page 17 - OPE MARCH 2019

INSIGHT
Lawn & Garden Contractors
increasing numbers of fringe operators buying a cheap weedeater and a lawnmower from any of the big DIY barns and going door to door, doing lawns for $20 a pop.
They may not do a great job but there again these operators may not be looking for repeat business...
Taking the opposite view would be the franchisees who, Rod Bain believes, are “on a worse wicket than the privately owned contractor because they’ve got the outlay of franchise fees each year.
“Contracting is pretty much up there with labour fees and equipment costs and the lawns haven’t really followed suit to compensate.”
(By “lawns” Rod means how much you can reasonably charge for mowing one...)
Wanted: franchisees!
It’s pertinent at this point to turn to
Jason Hill, General Manager of Green Acres Franchise Group, which is actively seeking to engage with these part-time, non-franchised lawn mowers with its Green Acres GO system.
The Uber-like on-demand system launched in September last year, aiming to attract a very different group of people from its franchisees and their hopefully regular customers.
Auckland Botanic Gardens makes the switch to electric
Although some professionals are still holding off going “all
the way” with cordless electric outdoor power tools, one major end user has “cut the cord” and is reaping the benefits.
The user in question is Auckland Botanic Gardens, whose 64 hectares of stunning gardens and sculpture attract over a million visitors every year.
The Gardens went all-electric almost seven months ago
and, so far, according to Renton Campbell, who’s in charge of maintenance, there have been no regrets about the decision.
The Gardens’ 20 gardeners and horticulturists, as well as Renton’s maintenance team of two, have been electric since August last year, having replaced almost all their STIHL petrol-driven outdoor power products, including walk-behind lawnmowers,
edge and hedge trimmers, brush cutters and blowers, with STIHL cordless equipment.
The timing of the move away from petrol-driven equipment was initially driven by the need to replace some tools, and the switch to electric was backed up by an assessment that took in the broader picture, including further improving the visitor experience.
“We took time to establish what was going to be the best outcome for all stakeholders going forward, not just for our staff, but also for the visitor experience, and we came to the conclusion that electric was the way to go,” says Renton Campbell.
The various benefits of moving away from petrol-driven tools
The Auckland Botanic Gardens team and their all-electric tools came through STIHL SHOP East Tamaki, another step in a long-term relationship.
included removing the need for mixing and the risk of spilling messy, smelly fuels, less maintenance, reduced vibration for users and much reduced noise, which is great for both users and visitors (and something that visitors have already picked up on, incidentally).
What about battery life? “For the time it takes us to carry out our daily tasks in the Botanic Gardens, we’re getting sufficient battery life and it’s not too challenging in terms of having to swap out batteries, so we’re very happy.
“So, all in all, it was a good decision to swap over to electric and, so far, we have found that performance is comparable to our petrol- powered tools.”
www.aucklandbotanicgardens.co.nz
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