Landscape Management, June 2017
Robotic revolution LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET June 2017 48 Photo robin profit centers Mowing Landscape Maintenance Continued on page 50 newsfeed hustler adds utv Hustler Turf equipments new Maximum Duty Vehicle will be for sale nationwide by the end of 2017 It lets users lift up to 750 pounds and dump material from any point in its arc of motion a plug for brightview BrightView purchased and is in the process of deploying electric mowers and other equipment this spring The national landscape company plans to have 200 electric mowers rolled out this year BrightView is also piloting electric charging trailers blowers trimmers and edgers with the goal of having select teams test new models of emission free equipment this summer dallas based lawn maintenance company Robin looks to the future with robotic mowers By eMiLy schappacheR w hile flipping through an issue of Wired Justin Crandall came across an article about robotic lawn mowers With a background in business startups and technology he was intrigued by the concept and wanted in on the action We look at ourselves as a techforward company and want to be the future of this industry says Crandall co founder and CEO of lawn maintenance company Robin headquartered in Dallas Texas If Uber is doing automatic cars and Amazon is doing drone delivery we need to do robotic mowers After doing his research Crandall learned robotic lawn mowers have been popular in Europe for nearly 20 years but they havent yet caught on in the U S In 2015 sales of robotic mowers in Western Europe were 360 million compared to 3 million in North America according to a report by research firm Euromonitor International Robotic mowers are more popular overseas for several reasons Crandall says Gas prices are higher and there are fewer landscape companies Over there you dont have this labor force that will roll up in front of your house and mow your lawn for 25 he says adding that robotic mowers cost anywhere from 1500 to 4500 Most people in Europe arent replacing a landscape contractor they are replacing themselves as the mower Crandall and his partner Bart Lomont a U S Air Force veteran with a logistics background founded Robin in 2015 The duo was inspired to start a lawn maintenance company after being frustrated by the bad experiences theyve had when trying to find companies to service their own lawns They launched Robin as an on demand service in 2015 with a reported 12 million in seed funding Robins staff of 12 supports nearly 6000 lawns in Dallas Fort Worth Austin Houston Atlanta Miami and Justin crandall cutting edge Justin crandall right and Bart Lomont are betting on a robotic mower boom
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