Shibaura, Cutting a Path through Asia
" alt="">The Turf Industry in Southeast Asia has embraced Shibaura as a leading brand of Turf Mowers and Top Dressers with a 232% increase in Shibaura sales in the past 2 years. Designed and manufactured in Japan, Shibaura has kept a simple yet robust approach to the development of their machines.
Whilst the turf industry, in other parts of the world, is turning to high-tech gimmicks created to enhance interest and generate sales, Shibaura understands that it’s geographically challenging to raise the level of education to Turf Facilities all throughout Asia. Many golf courses don’t have the opportunity or exposure to the level of education in the Maintenance Departments required to have an in-depth understanding of computers and diagnostic tools. This is going to take some time. Many superintendents become frustrated by not having the option to simply repair and trouble shoot the problems on the spot and carry on with their work. Every turf facility wants to simply turn on the machines, go and mow.
Additional strengths within the Shibaura network are the readily available parts required for repair works. Based and manufactured in Asia, Shibaura has the ability to have parts on hand and delivered fast to clients. With components of the machines being made up of parts that can be easily sourced locally in remote parts of Asia. There is far less dependency on long waiting periods for specialized and expensive parts to be sent from other parts of the world, avoiding the ongoing supply chain problems.
Being a Japanese-owned company, the high-quality steel manufactured in Japan is also a cut above the competition. Nothing has changed in over 150 years when it comes to the functionality of the reel and bedknife. The fundamentals are the same, “we believe there is no need to reinvent the wheel and tinker with what drives those reels.” Noted a spokesperson of Shibaura.
All that matters is where the reel meets the bednkife, the turf and the golfers don’t know the difference. Why pay more for high tech gimmicks that require additional extensive training, expensive parts and tools to maintain?
Sports Turf Solutions (STS) as the distributor for Shibaura in Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, contact us at contact@sportsturfsolutions.com and conduct your own side by side demo.
