Pellenc is ‘top of the game’ for Peter O’Brien

Peter O’Brien Landscaping & Sons, one of Ireland’s leading landscape and sports ground companies, has invested in a large fleet of Pellenc battery powered equipment.

Peter O’Brien Landscaping & Sons, founded in 1963, is a family run business, which has rapidly grown over recent years. The company, which specialises in design, construction and maintenance, has gained widespread plaudits for its quality of work and recently scooped the prestigious Landscape Contractor of the Year and Sports Turf Contractor of the Year awards for 2019.

With over 100 members of staff and a huge arsenal of green space management equipment at its disposal, Andy Jones, Maintenance Supervisor for Peter O’Brien’s, believes that the company has a responsibility to manage the impact the tools are having on the environment.

“We are always conscious at looking at our carbon footprint,” he says. “It is massive for us – particularly as we look towards the future. There is no point in us creating beautiful wildflower meadows and putting in pollinator plants when we are using petrol and diesel machinery – it just seems to defeat the purpose.”

The company soon embarked on an extensive search to identify a new fleet of battery powered equipment, and as Andy explains, no stone was left unturned in their quest.

“Electric machinery is a huge trend nowadays and we felt it was imperative to purchase the very best we could find on the marketplace. We conducted a huge amount of research over a three-month period. We carefully read product specifications, spoke to end users and attended SALTEX in order to pinpoint the leading manufacturers.

“We soon concluded that the Pellenc products are quite simply at the very top of the game.”

Pellenc products have recently become more accessible in the Republic of Ireland after Camsaw Ltd, a County Laois based business, was announced as the country’s exclusive distributor for Pellenc. Camsaw work with a widespread network of dealers to extend the reach of Pellenc, and it was one of these dealers – Leinster Turf Equipment, that Andy first contacted.

“We spoke to Leinster Turf Equipment about the Pellenc products and they conducted a demonstration at one of our sites in Dublin.  It turned out to be our first purchase with Leinster and it must be said that it is a great company to work with. The staff are very friendly and helpful, and, in my opinion, it gives you faith in the products and service even more when you are dealing with a professional company.”

After being hugely impressed with the demonstration, the decision was made to purchase a large fleet of Pellenc battery powered equipment which included a range of Rasion Basic pushmowers, Excelion 2000 brushcutters, Helion 2 Compact hedge trimmers, Helion Telescopic hedge trimmers, Airion 2 hand blowers and Selion polesaws – all powered by 1500 ultra-lithium batteries.

“We spread the Pellenc products between residential sites and the city centre in Dublin and then we have another fleet on two big commercial sites,” Andy continues.

“Ultimately, the feedback from everyone within the company is that we should have done this sooner. From the weight of the product, the finish of the product, the lack of noise pollution and the most important thing, and this is where Pellenc blew everyone else out of the water, is the battery times. We can easily get a full day’s work out of these products and we don’t have to worry about the hassle of charging them while on a job.

“The Pellenc products have also increased productivity – particularly in the city centre and the residential areas. Before we had these products, it used to be a case of the staff members sitting in the yard until 8am before they could get into these highly populated areas. However, now we can get to the sites at 7am and we are not waking people up or disturbing anyone. This has been a huge benefit.

“The quality of the work is outstanding, and it reflects what we, as a company are about, in offering a service of the highest standard.

“This has been our first taster of green technology, and it has been so good that we are rolling this out even further next year. The conversation has been had with the directors and very soon all of the vans will be kitted out with Pellenc equipment.”

Pellenc products are exclusively distributed in the Republic of Ireland by Camsaw Limited.

For further information, please visit www.pellencuk.com