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The outdoor product display at the International Lawn, Garden & Power Equipment EXPO in Louisville, Ky., is a virtual traffic jam of red, yellow, orange and green. With thirty-odd mower manufacturers vying for a chunk of the profit pie, competition is stiff. Still, there always seems to be an empty space for a new venture to park its product.
Enter Auburn Consolidated Industries (ACI). The Auburn, Neb.-based manufacturer is introducing its first product in the commercial mowing market this year at EXPO, and after three years of testing and one month of production, the company already has met 94 percent of its sales goal, says Brian Loynachan, general manager.
You might recognize the mower, branded last year at EXPO under the Massey Ferguson name. ACI introduced its zero-turn mower to their dealer network and initiated negotiations with Massey Ferguson to sell it under their brand.
This year, the mower has its own identity – the Warrior, and its own brand – EverRide. The company is after the professional market; its zero-turn 54- and 60-inch mower deck models are powered by a 25-hp Kawasaki engine and designed for heavy use. And it is no hurry to paint the town yellow.
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“Our approach has been one of gentle entry, if you will,” Loynachan describes. “Lots of people when they get into the business say, ‘We have to sell 3,000 mowers because we have to make money for our business.’ Our business is already very profitable. We are diversifying ourselves into this new avenue of manufacturing and distribution and we don’t have to rush in. Our approach is to do it slow, pick the distributors we want and make sure we only work with top-grade folks.”
So far, the company has nine distributors that cover 95 percent of the country, Loynachan says. Already, dealers are requesting the product, but he says that the organization’s current focus is to build the two-step network and solidify the EverRide brand name.
“We are taking a careful approach,” he says. “We want to make sure we do everything right. We don’t want to shove units down distributors’ throats, and we don’t want to shove units down dealers’ throats.”
While this is the first time the company has designed a product and taken it directly to the market, ACI is no stranger to the equipment arena, Loynachan points out. The manufacturer started in 1926 and has designed and produced implements such as grass catchers and mower decks for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). ACI enjoys solid relationships with Kubota, Case New Holland and John Deere, and will continue producing products for these companies while it diversifies its business structure by entering the mower market, he adds.
But stretching into the zero-turn mower manufacturing sector offers more security for the business – and a new way for it to reach end-users.
“Our business model was such that we were making equipment for OEMs, but all of those OEMs have their own manufacturing facilities, and if the economy or a specific segment of the market were to turn down and one of our customer’s volume were to decrease, it could cause them to say, ‘We need to make these products ourselves,’” Loynachan says. “(This arrangement) didn’t give us a warm, fuzzy feeling about the long-term stability of our business.”
With $4 million in facility upgrades for new tooling, the operation is now up to speed for commercial mower production, Loynachan notes. Besides ramping up manufacturing capabilities, ACI performed three years of tests on the EverRide Warrior before this year’s introduction. With so much competition in the zero-turn mower market, ensuring the product exceeded current lines was a priority for the EverRide team.
“We took the top four mowing units in the market today and then we had our test technicians go outside and mow side by side,” Loynachan says, describing one of the performance tests. “We put a flag on each sample – you don’t know which one is our mower and which is the other brand. Then, we have a crew of people analyze each cut.”
Besides performance, durability is also crucial when introducing a new product, Loynachan notes. “We like to go where the testing would be most extreme, which is why Florida is good,” he says. “The high grass is difficult to cut and the sand is very abrasive, so it really shows you if you have any weaknesses in your product. Then, we got the mowers in the hands of contractors who put lots of hours on the equipment – the guys who put 30 to 35 hours a week on a piece of equipment.”
EverRide is confident about its zero-turn mower, and now it hopes the two-step distribution network will help drive its sales. After considering various distribution models, including dealer-direct, the company decided to filter its product into the market via the traditional two-step method, taking advantage of distributors’ and dealers’ fine-tuned market knowledge. “We figured there are people out there who are experts in doing what we want done – why don’t we work with them as partners?” Loynachan says.
Meanwhile, the company looks for ways its manufacturing process can squeeze inefficiencies out of this distribution model. More players mean more places to lose time – and money. Just-in-time manufacturing tactics are a primary focus at EverRide, Loynachan says. “We try to minimize the expenses in the chain by looking at it on a holistic basis,” he says, noting that 80 percent of units are shipped uncrated, assembled and ready to drive.
“You put on $50 to $60 worth of wood and nails and take the time to put it around the unit, then you get the unit to the distributor and someone has to take off the wood,” he explains. “We make sure units get built the way we want them and no one has to spend time uncrating or assembling.”
Now, the new kid on the block is building its reputation and hoping that dealers are interested in testing the brand. “Our goal is to get our distributors and to start getting some name recognition,” Loynachan says.
The author is Editor of Commercial Dealer magazine and a Contributing Editor to Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at khampshire@commercialdealer.com.