Golfdom, March 2018

SUMMIT SUMMARY Continued from page 31 company brought the heavy hitters in Martin Sternberg CGCS CEO and founder and Ted Fist head of U S business operations Fist says that once a superintendent sat down with the duo they explained the highlights of their product that it is a homogenous blended product delivered in a readymix truck and installed in a one step process It goes in a bunker is covered in 2 inches of sand and is ready to be played the next day It drains at hundreds of inches an hour Fist says Were looking at water moisture content and how that relationship with the sand and our gravel layer and the drainage system interact so we can provide better playing conditions with less maintenance Fist says a highlight of the event for him aside from meeting such a talented group of superintendents was when one of their meetings ended and another was about to begin Fist says the previous superintendent stopped the incoming superintendent He tells the other guy hes not going to use anyone else but us hes talking about our product and selling for us Fist laughs Thats when I knew our message was getting through Primera Primera gave a unique pitch to superintendents at the 2017 Summit We told these guys right away were not going to sell you anything says Rocky Dreibrodt director of Corbin Turf a Primera distributor Instead of pitching products the company wanted to find out what superintendents look for in a distribution representative and to educate them on their company Primera is a distribution network cooperative spanning 61 companies and 525 distribution sites throughout the United States It works with a range of manufacturers including big names such as Syngenta Bayer and Dow Michael Kropp national director of professional markets for Wilbur Ellis another Primera distributor says We do about 650 700 million dollars in sales and that buying power helps us provide the best products the best pricing and the best service that we can as a co op Communication with sales reps was a hot topic in the one on one meetings Though many younger superintendents prefer to interact with their reps via text and the old school crowd tends to prefer phone calls they had one thing in common They all have to have trust that Im going to stand behind the products Dreibrodt says Fortunately for Primera it seems that theyre building trust while also growing the company Kropp notes that the co op went from 9 percent market share in 2011 to 22 percent market share in 2016 Weve had tremendous success the last six years says Dreibrodt This allows us to continue to tell people who we are and keep us relevant because we dont want to rest Healthy Grow Who knew that chickens could help grow high quality turf Pearl Valley Organix is a family owned poultry farm in Illinois that manufactures Healthy Grow an organic fertilizer made from the waste of egg laying chickens on the farm The waste is then mixed with organic materials and turned into fertilizer through a 45 day aerobic composting process According to Healthy Grow the natural timedrelease fertilizer helps grow healthy disease resistant turf without flush growth which cuts back on mowing Jeff Leuzinger Healthy Grows sales manager explains Were a manufacturer that makes a granular 32 Golfdom March 2018 Golfdom com GANNON Golfdom columnist Joe Gulotti center of Newark Del CC talks about his bunker challenges with Capillary Concretes Martin Sternberg CGCS left and Rusty McLendon onemeetings Thoughmany atwater relationshipwith systeminteract sowe conditionswith RockyDreibrodt forWilbur thatwe Communicationwith repswas toHealthy turfwithout onmowing salesmanager amanufacturer thatmakes PHOTO BY GRANT B