Reliable Loaders Help Keep Landscaper “Growing Better”

Tom Christensen, fleet manager for Heads Up, works with Richie Rodriguez (right) of Tom Growney Equipment to conduct crew leader training with the Bobcat training materials. “Every one of our employees that attended said they learned something from the training,” he says.

Heads Up, one of the nation’s largest and most successful landscaping firms, features the tagline “Growing Better” wherever its logo appears. “It’s a play on words,” David Daniell, vice president, told Lawn & Landscape magazine. “We want plants to grow better and landscapes to grow better and we also want to grow better every day—operationally, personally, with our customers, in sales.”

For Heads Up, part of “growing better” includes 18 Bobcat® skidsteer loaders and dozens of attachments. “Using Bobcat equipment helps us to be a more profitable company,” says Tom Christiansen, fleet manager for the Albuquerque, N.M., firm.

Heads Up was founded in 1974 as a residential lawn sprinkler service. Since then the company evolved into a full-service operation offering six areas of expertise: design, landscape construction, irrigation, re-vegetation, Xeriscape™ landscape conversion and grounds management. The client mix is about 90 percent commercial and 10 percent residential.

Preferred loaders

The Bobcat skid-steer loader lineup at Heads Up includes two 753s, eight 873s and eight new S250s. Each landscape construction crew has its own loader, and the newly formed “enhancement” crew, as part of the grounds maintenance group, uses one of the S250 models.

Heads Up practices a strict preventive maintenance program and, as a result, “we have had almost no problems with our Bobcat skid-steer loaders,” according to Tom Christensen, fleet manager

Three years ago, the company was spending $700,000 annually renting equipment. By adding more versatile Bobcat loaders and attachments, Heads Up cut its rental bill to less than $200,000.

“The amazing amount and variety of work that we can accomplish with these loaders means we can really reduce the amount of equipment we have to use on different projects, not to mention the savings that we get from operator efficiencies.” says Christensen. “All of our operators and mechanics are trained on the machines and having all ‘like’ loaders means better operation and maintenance.

“Today a Bobcat loader and attachments can replace several different specialty machines that we used to deliver to a job. That saves us a lot of time and transportation costs, all adding up to making us more efficient and keeping us competitive. This reduced our need to rent which cut into our profitability. With the number of Bobcat attachments available, we can accomplish a lot more work with less equipment.”

Heads Up and Christiansen are sold on Bobcat products for other reasons as well. “I have been around and worked with several different loaders for more than 20 years. The Bobcat brand is superior and we get great service from our dealer, Tom Growney Equipment. That all helps us to keep ‘Growing Better.’ When purchasing equipment we place a large percentage on the reliability of the brand, serviceability, parts availability, training and dealer support. Bobcat equipment and Tom Growney rate very high in our book.”

New Mexico’s high desert climate can be demanding on skid-steer loaders.

“We put about 1,200-1,800 hours annually on our loaders,” says Christiansen, “They get used—hauling, lifting, digging, trenching and planting. With Bobcat products and our dealer’s service, we have very reliable equipment. We get our money’s worth with Bobcat loaders and attachments. You can’t beat them.”