Hello Lewis,
I feel it's absolutely fabulous to have a Company Owner / Director on board here at ODK. Normally they wouldn't want to have a bar of any Forum type public communication. This really provides transparency between the ones that know and the ones that want to know.
I must congratulate you on your push mower series the "Enduro". It would without any doubt in the world have to be the worlds best push mower and the fact that it's still made here in Australia is such an endorsement to Australian Engineering and Manufacturing, something we should be proud of, but are sadly losing rapidly.
I have just recently steered my best friend to purchase the "Vanguard Model" from "Strathalbyn Small Engines" here in country South Australia and he (David) claims it to be the best mower he's ever owned and used in the domestic field. It just feels so right in ones hands and has so many features that we all used to have in the domestic home mower which have all now been turned into "Kmart Toy Department" type and looking machines at Bunnings. With all their flimsy highly colourful eye catching plastic paneling and razor thin plastic coated tread looking mag wheels etc. it is so good to still see that there is still one manufacturer left that feels that the trends must be bucked and sanity is to prevail.
If there is one downside to all this and that is that the dealer network doesn't seem to want to promote the "Enduro" range (at least here in SA) and would rather sell a Victa as was the case with David when he went to a major Adelaide Franchise who steered him straight to a Victa after stating that we can't sell those (Enduros) off the floor, but could order one if really desired with a wait of over 3 weeks, thus why we ended up going to a regional dealer who was so glowing of the Greenfield product. I understand that in the domestic market the name Victa and Rover is known by all, thus it's a good spring board to bounce straight off of and not much educating of the purchaser needs to be done in the sales process.
I'm not sure what the real story behind all this is, but I just feel that with such a fantastic product available here on our own shores why are we steering away to foreign owned brands and to make matters worse they are such a substandard product.
I have since David's purchase directed a number of people who have asked "what should I buy" towards the retailer at Strathalbyn and he has sold quite a few Enduros to them all. All these people are so happy with their purchases it's just so sad that none of the Metropolitan Dealers are willing to sell / promote the Greenfield Domestic range, but only the Ride On Range.
Anyway once again I must congratulate you Lewis for coming on board a public domain like ODK.
Cheers,
BB.
