EXPO 2001 Review: Items Of Interest From The Show

• EXPO 2001 Products: Part IV
• EXPO 2001 Products: Part III
• EXPO 2001 Products: Part II
• EXPO 2001 Products: Part I

For more coverage of EXPO 2001 click the following links:

• OPEI EXPO 2001 Attendance Up 5 Percent
• EXPO 2001 Images

In addition, here's a summary of some of the interesting stories from Louisville.

Husqvarna Moving Forward

Husqvarna's inside booth may have lacked Miss Sweden this year, but the company was still excited to introduce a host of new products at its outdoor booth. The company's primary equipment innovation is a revamped steering design for its walk-behind, which Ken Taylor, corporate business development manager, compared to a shopping cart design. "Instead of the traditional pistol-grip setup, we've put all of the controls in the operator area to reduce operator fatigue and boost productivity," he explained, "because productivity isn't just about speed."

In addition, Taylor related that Husqvarna learned a valuable lesson in its first full year of mower development since the acquisition of Yazoo/Kees - "Contractors will pay a little more for a product if the added cost is a result of added value," he noted. Sales of the company's riding mower with a full floating deck pointed this lesson out, so Husqvarna has made a floating deck standard on its walk-behind mowers and put the cutting height adjustment in the operator area as well.

Husqvarna, which is having a record year in terms of sales and profits, according to President Dave Zerfoss, also introduced a 72-inch riding mower designed to cut 7.5 acres an hour as well as a new string trimmer, backpack blower, Clean Sweep tool and a pole saw.

Great Dane Going Strong

One of the big stories of the first half of 2001 was John Deere's acquisition of Great Dane. The acquisition made a lot of sense for both companies, but it also created additional questions, particularly regarding the future of the Great Dane name and dealer/distributor organization. Greg Brenningmeyer, who handles acquisition integration on behalf of John Deere, set out to reassure all Great Dane employees, dealers, distributors and end users that John Deere plans to build upon what they've created, not eliminate it. "I will admit that we bought a company with a stronger name in the commercial mowing arena than we had," he told attendees at a cocktail reception. "And we remain committed to a dual-brand strategy that will help Great Dane dealers and offer more options to Great Dane users."

In particular, Brenningmeyer, who predicted that consolidation among mower manufacturers will accelerate significantly in the next few years, pointed out that John Deere brings increased capital, manufacturing capacity and financing options to the Great Dane organization. John Deere benefits from the acquisition by immediately growing its share in the commercial mowing arena and by tapping into the talents of one of the mowing industry's most accomplished engineers, Dane Scag.

"I can assure you that Great Dane is going to be the No. 1 manufacturer of commercial mowing equipment - that is our goal," related Rick Cuddihe, vice president for the organization. "We've already demonstrated we're the most innovative and cutting edge manufacturer, and now we're combining that with the power of John Deere. It's an unbeatable combination."

Great Dane used the reception as an opportunity to introduce its new Scamper walk-behind mower. "This machine is going to revolutionize the walk-behind industry," predicted Scag, who continues to oversee mower research and development for the two organizations. Scag is especially excited about the complete integration of the hydrostatic pumps and wheel motors, which he claims will greatly simplify performance and reduce maintenance for the end users.

"I'm very happy to just be engineering so much right now," Scag related. "The typical life for a design cycle of mowers is five to 10 years, so I think we're coming due for some real innovation.

Perma-Green Supreme Motors Forward

When Tom Jessen and Perma-Green Supreme introduced its Ride-On Spreader/Sprayer a few years ago, you could see this was the work of a frustrated lawn care professional tired of walking across endless lawns making countless applications. Based on the success Perma-Green has had with that machine, now Jessen is exploring options for an automated granular spreader, and he had the prototype on display in Louisville.

"Getting the technicians off their feet means there's less fatigue and they'll do the job right the first time," Jessen explained. "That's what everyone is trying to do. There's equipment that will replace the need for people in every booth at this show. That's the wave of the future."

Jessen said the need for the granular spreader is driven by the changing market. "No one does all liquid anymore," he observed. "When I was in lawn care 20 years ago, I didn't own a spreader, but the market is moving toward granular products."

Jessen's goals for the granular unit including keeping it narrow enough to fit within a 36-inch gate and offer two speed alternatives - 5 and 3.5 miles per hour. The faster speed is for wide-open areas, and the slower speed lets people use the machine on hills," he explained. "All they have to do is get off the platform and it's just another walk-behind spreader."

The Mowers from Down Under

Jim's Mowing sounds like just another one-man mowing operation, but don't be fooled. The company is actually a landscape maintenance franchise organization that has been operating in Australia since 1989, and Jim Penman, managing director, is bringing his organization to the United States. OPEI was the company's first show in the country, and Penman said his first goal is to identify master franchisers who will then help him sell local franchises in their own market.

"We think the mowing market here in the U.S. is extraordinarily soft and offers a lot of opportunity," he remarked. "We did some research in a couple of states by calling for estimates from various contractors, and we were pleased by how slow contractors' response time was. We guarantee customers that we'll respond to their request for a price within two hours, which has been a big key for our success thus far and will help us succeed here."

The business model for Jim's Mowing varies somewhat from traditional franchise organizations in that all franchisees market using a central phone number. When a prospect calls that number, the organization sends the lead out to the appropriate franchise based on where the lead is located. "In addition to the franchise purchase fee ($6,000 to $20,000 based on the size of the territory), franchisees pay a monthly fee of about $320 per month and a fee of about $6 a lead," Penman explained. "That means our franchisees have strong incentive to convert every lead into business, which results in tremendous customer service."

Currently, there are 1,600 Jim's Mowing franchises in Australia and New Zealand, using the same master franchise model. "The master franchise is like a coach, focusing on training and developing the franchisees," he said, adding that master franchise territories are divided up based on population areas of 1 million people. "That means we'll need about 300 to 400 master franchisors in the U.S."

Good News For Dealers On Technology Front

Dealers at EXPO 2001 received word that OPEI has formed national standards for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in an effort to make digital interaction between manufacturers, distributors and dealers a reality. The standards have been a work in progress for several years and are finally in place to push the outdoor power equipment (OPE) industry further into the digital age to conduct more business online through the typical distribution network of manufacturers, distributors and dealers.

EDI will be available in the coming months based on the EDI standards announced at the show and the partnership of four technology companies offering EDI software to those companies. Three software companies, Ideal Computer Systems, c-Systems Software and Softpower Computer Systems, will distribute software for reliable EDI to OPE dealers free of charge. Meanwhile, the fourth company in the partnership, e-dn.com Inc., joins dealers with business management systems through an electronic hub (e-Hub) that routes data among users through an Electronic Distribution Network (EDN).

The EDN creates a standard for electronic documents, such as purchase orders, warranty claims, product registrations, "real time" inventory checks and other items, to travel via the Internet between existing EDN-abled software applications and participating manufacturers. Regardless of a company’s current business management system, software from any of the three software providers can be integrated into that system to allow for electronic communication without changing the system.

Essentially, the free dealer software takes specific fields of data from a business’ system and sends them to the e-Hub, which in turn regroups the data and routes it to the intended receiver, such as a manufacturer or distributor. Software at the receiver’s business then pulls the data into specific fields on its system, thus providing a standard means of communication that doesn’t require changing information on an individual company’s system. For example, a part number on a dealer’s system may be labeled a part code on a manufacturer’s system. The software and e-Hub work together to recognize these items as being the same and allow the systems to communicate the information even though it is labeled differently on each system.

Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA, is the first participating manufacturer in the newly standardized EDN, and e-dn.com is working on additional relationships to advance the technology of the OPE industry.

New Kid On The Block

Bad Boy, Batesville, Ariz., is a new manufacturer of commercial, zero-turn, mid-mount riding lawn mowers, and they made their debut at EXPO 2001.

"At Bad Boy, we are very excited about the impact our mower will have on this industry," said company Owner Robert Foster, standing in front of his K-27 HP ProSeries mowers.

The Bad Boy mowers that Foster introduced at the show include the following standard features:

• 27-hp Kawasaki liquid-cooled engine
• Full suspension seat
• Instant-lift electric actuator deck height control system
• Floating deck
• 21L Hydro-Gear pumps and wheel motors
• Available in both 60- and 72-inch cutting deck widths
• Powder coat, fusion-bonded paint finish