CAM system ensures that the company remains at the forefront of design technology, making them able to react almost immediately to customer requirements. This system has helped the company reduce noise and vibration levels to some of the lowest in the industry. Modernising the Dennis brand has been an ongoing process. Now, Ian believes, the company is firmly in the 21st century. The major changes at the factory site at Derby have helped to produce a modern, clean effective production line whilst, at the same time, introducing new mowers and products.


It is a far cry from the ‘difficult’ times of the early eighties. There is a Dennis mower of some type or other at over seventy-five percent of professional football clubs in the UK, and their versatile cassette system has proved popular with groundsmen at bowls, cricket and tennis clubs.


The company recently unveiled the Razor Ultra 560 22”cylinder mower to provide a high quality cut for fine turf, especially suited to golf and bowling greens and cricket wickets. In total, Dennis have eleven different models on offer. And what of that World


Cup order?


“In less than three months we managed to build, test and deliver twenty-seven mowers to the stadia and training facilities at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa,” says Ian proudly. “The mowers were supplied through our partner Smith Turf, one of South Africa’s largest dealers, who are based in Johannesburg but have a network of support centres around the country.” “A team of agronomists


Doing it Howard’s Way ...


from STRI were appointed by FIFA as the pitch consultants and were responsible for ensuring the pitches met FIFA’s exacting standards. A programme of education days was set up, which required myself and our Sales Manager, Toby Clarke, to demonstrate our mowers to the newly appointed grounds staff.”


This was held at the


England training camp at the impressive Royal Bafokeng Sports Facility in Rustenburg, 120km from Johannesburg. Over eighty groundstaff were


shown how to use the mowers. Considerable time was spent explaining about the aesthetics of pitch presentation. “The total experience was a fantastic learning curve for ‘Team Dennis’ and, obviously, brought great kudos to our company,” says Ian. “The quality of the pitches produced at the World Cup venues was excellent and a testament to all those who contributed their skill, knowledge and experience using the best equipment and resources available. I’d like to think that our mowers played a major part in the maintenance and presentation at these wonderful stadia.” “We have to keep our name


in front of the end users,” says Ian, “and, to do that, we attend the national shows at Windsor and Harrogate as well as key shows across Europe. I have always supported them, but, with falling visitor numbers and the overall cost of exhibiting, I feel the industry, as a whole, needs to look at itself and come up with new ways of promoting itself. Whether the mooted ‘One Show’ approach is right, we will have to wait and see. There needs to be effective dialogue between key players and organisations to agree the way forward.” The company not only attend key trade shows, but organise a series of Dennis road shows every year, demonstrating their wares and expertise at sports grounds up and down the country. Current sales figures show that 50% of their market is in bowls and cricket, 25% football and 15% ornamental lawn/local authority use. Dennis also exports 10% of their production overseas. They have also produced a


new product brochure showing their full range. I was delighted to see one of my photographs on the front cover, a picture of two of their Dennis G860s cutting the pitch at Wolverhampton Wanderers.


Despite the current


economic climate, 2010 was a good year for Dennis. It is down to commitment, time, endeavour and passion, which starts at the top and permeates right through ‘Team Dennis’.


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