Proudly serving the industry for which it was named for more than 50 years, Outdoor Power Equipment provides dealers who sell and service outdoor power equipment with valuable information to succeed in a competitive market.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/481024
www.outdoorpowerequipment.com OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT APRIL 2015 29 Components such as deck spindles, belts and oil filters should be examined to ensure ease of accessibility when purchasing any piece of equipment. Keeping the equipment running with mini- mum downtime should be a main criterion. — Brice Hill, product manager, Dixie Chopper It's simple: Have a program. Make a routine out of maintenance, and you will save money on expensive components in the long run. — Bill Shea, vice president of commercial sales, Briggs & Stratton Products Group The first thing an operator should do is refer to the operator's manual. By following the maintenance schedule, operators can easily keep up with the maintenance schedule and potentially avoid major issues down the road. — Nick Minas, product manager, John Deere Commercial Mowing What is the overall outlook of the market as a whole with regard to mower sales in 2015? The outlook is very positive. With fuel prices being down, it is putting money back in the pockets of the contractor and the con- sumer. Hopefully, they will look to take some of those savings and upgrade or update their mower. A few years were down for con- tractors, especially 2008, 2009 and even into 2010. And I think a lot of contractors hung onto machines for a year or two too long. But these guys are back and looking to upgrade their machines. — Brad Unruh, senior product manager, Excel Industries, manufacturer of Hustler Turf Equipment and BigDog Mowers The outdoor power equipment industry is rapidly growing in an otherwise stagnant economy. With all the benefits of Mean Green Mowers, we are seeing greatly increasing de- mand for pure electric mowers. Mean Green Mower sales have been at least doubling every year, and we expect this year to be even better. — Joe Conrad, president, Mean Green Mowers Recent economic indicators are pointing to solid growth in the com- ing year. Both employment and consumer confidence are up, which is a good sign. If the economy keeps improving, mower sales should improve along with it, as landscapers replace aging equipment and invest in their businesses with more versatile equipment. — Mike Simmon, communications specialist, Grasshopper 2015 is looking to be a good year, as it looks like fuel costs will bring down operating expenses, which should help equipment sales. Also, the lower unemployment rate means that more people are work- ing. This should also help fuel more work for most commercial landscapers and, in turn, drive more equipment purchases. — Tony Weber, product specialist manager, Schiller Grounds Care, Inc. Since most outdoor power product sales are tied closely to gen- eral U.S. economic indicators, it is somewhat difficult to predict what 2015 will hold for lawn mower sales. That being said, the industry predicts small-but-steady growth in the lawn mower marketplace for the next year. — Alex Torre, manager, marketing and market research, Honda Power Equipment Among other factors, mower sales are mostly dependent on rain- fall, the general economy, new-home sales and fuel prices. The current state of the U.S. economy is very robust with record-low unemployment rates, fuel prices at record lows, and new-home sales rebounding back to healthy levels. Therefore, 2015 looks like it will be a very good year for mower sales. While precipita- tion is still an unknown, the current fuel prices will definitely be the catalyst to robust mower sales for both homeowners and professionals — homeowners will likely have more discretion- ary income to purchase, and professionals should have better profitability to upgrade their fleets. All in all, we expect to see another year of robust double-digit growth in mower sales in the year ahead. — Rajesh Joshi, Kubota turf product marketing director As the economy continues to stabilize, we're very bullish on the market and its potential for growth in the coming year. We be- lieve the industry, and specifically the ZTR segment, is going to continue to expand; and we're confident that the diverse lineup of Altoz products and accessories will enable us to outpace the industry in terms of growth rates. — Karl Bjorkman, sales and marketing director, Altoz In 2015, we expect to see continued growth in the outdoor power equipment industry as a whole. Successful landscape contractors will continue to better understand the value of technology and data to helping them do their jobs more efficiently. This is true in all areas of a contractor's business — not just with equipment. — Daryn Walters, director of marketing, Exmark The ZTR industry has been on the rise the past 10 years, and in 2015, we expect this trend to continue. — Brice Hill, product manager, Dixie Chopper Our plan is for another robust year for sales. Our dealers and dis- tributors report a fairly healthy market as compared to years past. — Bill Shea, vice president of commercial sales, Briggs & Stratton Products Group EDITOR'S NOTE: Responses are presented in the order in which they were received. FEATURE SToRy Photo By MEAN GREEN MoWERS OPE