Magazine - Fineturf honoured with TGA show

By Laurence Gale MSc in Industry on 18th Feb 2005 13:00

Fineturf honoured with TGA Show

by Laurence Gale Msc

Simon takes up the story, "I was brought up on golf and had always dreamed that one day I would work on the family course. It was something of a natural progression starting up Fineturf. We had quite a bit of machinery on our golf course and I was keen to use it. Local people began asking me to carry out some work, so I began to build up a reputation for constructing and maintaining sports turf facilities.

We are well equipped with machinery, so I utilised what we had, and soon found myself having to take on extra staff to cope with the workload. Now, eight years on, we have a full time staff of eight and able to take on extra people when required.

Initially, the work evolved around golf, but now we can offer construction and maintenance of many sports including football, cricket and bowls. We also have our own turf farm with over 80 acres dedicated to producing quality turf, of which 35% is grown for the sports market.

The company now operates nationwide and we are able to offer the complete package to our customers, of design, supply of materials, construction and finally the maintenance of the installed facility.

All works are carried out by Fineturf's experienced team using their own equipment.

Our team is multi skilled; they are trained and certificated to use many different machines and tools. Having dedicated, experienced staff is the key to success. They often have to work 12-14 hour days in the summer, but they are always well rewarded for their endeavour. At the end of 2004 my team at Fineturf and I have been recognised and honoured locally in the Small Growing Business and Business Person of the Year Categories in which we came out top. I am very lucky; everybody is totally committed to the company which, in turn, reflects on how well we can turn jobs around.

We are currently working on two football pitches and a number of golf green constructions; we also have some landscape projects on the go in and around Oxford and Cambridge. Our turf farm is currently being enlarged to 100 acres to cope with demand.

We are members of the Turf Growers Association (TGA), which has resulted in Fineturf being selected to host this years TGA Show (a bi-annual turf growers' show). It will be held on the 29th and 30th June 2005 at our farm at Honington, near Grantham, and will include a wide range of activities, events and demonstrations for everyone involved in the growing, buying, selling, laying and after-care of turf for amenity, sports and landscaping.

I am delighted to be asked to promote and organise this show. It is a real honour for my staff and me. I am sure we can provide a really good show to promote our turf grass industry and the benefits of natural turf."

Read more articles in Industry, by Laurence Gale MSc or from February 2005.