Page 12 - OPE November 2020

MARKETPLACE
ZTR Mowers
Perfect storm hits supply in buoyant market
Selling ZTRs this season
is proving to be a hectic occupation, for a variety of reasons. Andy Kerr reports.
DURING A HECTIC pre-season, our zero-turn commentators were facing the tricky juggling act of
getting workshops running, demonstrating mowers, and selling in the field.
“It proved a real test for our dealers and a resourcing challenge,” confirms Husqvarna’s Steve Middleton.
“Contractors have been very busy; in some areas grass growth is phenomenal, and it takes some planning and good timing to catch guys at the right time.”
So, is the typical seasonality of ZTR sales likely to be as pronounced this year?
The answer is yes, according to Steelfort’s Gavin Lowndes: “While the overall market is down year to date, at least to the end of September, we expect the current buoyant
market to provide the additional sales before the end of the year to surpass 2019. For Cub Cadet, sales will certainly be ahead in 2020.”
Gavin Lowndes also confirms that overall ride-on lawnmower demand since April has been unprecedented, with “sales exceeding all expectations by a huge margin”.
Sounds good, but, says Gavin, there’s a caveat: “Unfortunately this has led to stock outages, which will continue through until December.
“Global demand, social distancing in US factories reducing production capacity, and major shipping disruptions have caused the perfect storm.”
On top of this, Masport’s Simon Gaunt believes sales seasonality could be camouflaged a little by early post-COVID demands.
“Many suppliers are low in stock, and some are completely out of popular models.
“With many shipments running late, we will see demand strong through to autumn and, in these crazy times, winter may bring strong sales based on stock becoming available.”
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High-end sales humming
Despite all this, Steve Middleton is pleased
to report that end users are spending good money locally to get the right tool for the job.
“We’re selling a lot of our mid-range to upper-range zero-turns,” he says. “Whether it’s farms or lifestyle, people are upgrading to extra power, bigger cutting decks, great frames, and better manoeuvrability.” Simon Gaunt agrees: “Consumers have been gravitating to more feature-rich domestic models that deliver improved performance, power and comfort. And more time at home this year has led to increased web traffic on all products and
Cub Cadet – look, no steering wheel!
A completely new range of Cub Cadet zero-turn models is
due to arrive in December to complement the existing steering wheel range.
Steelfort’s Gavin Lowndes says: “The Cub Cadet Ultima range has had a major impact over the last year in the USA and we expect it to have strong retail support in NZ as soon as it is released.”
www.steelfort.co.nz