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Powering the Green Revolution: Cordless Landscaping Insights
69 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back to another episode of The Better Contractor Podcast. In this episode, we go deep into the heart of the landscaping industry's transition to cordless technology. Hosts Brent Oberlink and Travis May are joined by industry expert Todd Zimmerman from PositecUSA to unravel the latest trends, challenges, and breakthroughs in the world of cordless landscaping equipment.
Through engaging conversations, we dissect the practical implications of switching from gas-powered to cordless tools. Discover firsthand accounts from professionals who have embraced cordless technology and learn about their experiences navigating the transition.
The exploration doesn't stop there. "Powering the Green Revolution" goes beyond the present, offering insights into the future of technology and entrepreneurship with discussions on emerging technologies like robotic lawnmowers in the contracting industry. Explore the potential applications of these cutting-edge tools for future success in our industry.
#GreenRevolution #SustainableLandscaping #CordlessTechnology #LandscapeInnovation #FutureofLandscaping #BatteryPower #EnvironmentalSustainability #Efficiency #CostSavings #RoboticMowers #LandscapeTech #GoCordless #GreenFuture #LandscapingTrends #EntrepreneurialMindset #GreenEntrepreneurship #SustainableBusiness #LandscapeEntrepreneur
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Transcript
Introduction to Todd Zimmerman and Crest
00:00:12
Speaker
All right, guys. Well, welcome back to another episode of The Better Contractor. Today, we're joined by Todd Zimmerman with Crest. I had the opportunity of meeting Todd at the Equip Expo in Louisville, and they were one of the brands that I was intrigued by. So I told Travis, I'm like, you know what? We've got to get Todd to be on this show because not only did you, you're interested to talk to
00:00:35
Speaker
You were passionate and your brain is just a little different. It's doing things a little bit differently. So, I like that. Made a bunch of notes and thought, hey, this is our dude for a podcast. But Todd, welcome to the show.
Todd's Cordless Industry Experience
00:00:47
Speaker
If you don't mind, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and for the listeners that do not know what Crest is yet, K-R-E-S-S. Fill them in. Absolutely. Brent, thank you. I appreciate it. And I'm honored to be on with The Better Contractor.
00:01:01
Speaker
and appreciate the opportunity just to have a conversation about what's going on in the industry with cordless. So a little bit about me, I've been in the cordless industry since 1996, started with a few other companies, but have always been around battery development, product and technology development through those companies, grew up through sales and marketing and training, working with landscapers and contractors out in the market to truly understand what it means to them to be cordless.
00:01:28
Speaker
what they need out of a product to be different for them to convert from whatever their current product is over to a newer product. I really found the product piece of it is where I found my passion, I guess, is a better way to say it.
Crest's Innovative Battery Technology
00:01:45
Speaker
I love the fact to be able to talk to someone like yourself or landscapers or dealers that we meet at Equip to truly understand what their concerns are and how a new solution may be able to help those concerns.
00:01:57
Speaker
Again, been in the industry for quite a while. And in 2019, ended up joining Positech. And right when I joined Positech, we started the development of this Crest commercial product that you guys are seeing over the past few years, right? We launched it to the world at Equip in 2022, followed up in 2023 with another launch of 23 new items, three new batteries.
00:02:23
Speaker
more accessories coming to market to really help those contractors, the commercial contractors, really have a true reason to change from gas to cordless, right? And the biggest thing, and what I hope everybody knows from Crest right now, is truly what the product delivers, but not only the product, but what the battery technology delivers. And that's really where Crest
00:02:46
Speaker
is different from everybody else, right?
Impact of Fast-Charging Technology
00:02:49
Speaker
We refer to them as our cyber pack battery. And we also refer to our charging aspect called a cyber tank. So we call it our eight minute cyber system. Our battery technology allows professional landscapers to be able to charge a battery in 12 minutes. If it's not fast enough for you, you can charge it in eight minutes on flash charge, right? So just pause and think about that,
Development Journey of Crest's Battery
00:03:14
Speaker
right? By the time somebody
00:03:17
Speaker
drinks an eight ounce soda or a cup of coffee the battery would be charged and they're ready to go. So now with that we have a portable charging solution we refer to as a cyber tank right so the cyber tank is stationary it mounts onto your trailer it travels with you wherever you go and that's what gives you the DC to DC charge capability so when you're out you can limit the number of batteries that you're investing in up front to so instead of having
00:03:45
Speaker
35 batteries, I now need four as a two-man crew to get through the day because I have the ability to charge on the trailer. So for professional landscapers out there, it's literally buying your fuel upfront because the warranty that comes with it is six years on the battery. It's six years or 3,000 life cycles. So you're literally buying your gas, your fuel costs today
00:04:08
Speaker
which you know is going to go up over the next six years, you're buying your fuel costs today when you change. So you're automatically going to start saving money over that period because the battery is just that different. That technology is just that different. Yeah, that's what impressed me at the show. And that was one of the main notes I had was that cyber tank and that charge time, because that kind of revolutionizes it completely, you know. It does. It's an appealing technology to bring on.
00:04:35
Speaker
It is, right? And as we started this off, if we weren't, if Kress didn't bring a technology that was different and we launched with a normal lithium ion battery, which we do have, right? We have a 60 volt prosumer brand, which is fantastic. But that prosumer brand, right? For someone like myself that does his own landscaping at his home, right? That's perfect for me, but for professional contractors,
00:05:02
Speaker
It's not going to hold up to what they need. It's not delivering the promise of the power of gas to be able to convert. Right. And that's where that commercial battery came in. And that technology is what really allows us to be different in the industry. So like we started as a company we started working on that battery.
00:05:21
Speaker
gracious almost 12 years ago now, right? With a company, not a company, excuse me, a university out of Canada,
Designing Battery-Powered Tools to Match Gas Performance
00:05:30
Speaker
right? The chemist there and we've worked with them for quite a while with the whole concept of we need a battery. And quite honestly, this isn't earth shattering news. Anybody that's developing a cell right now is trying to do three things. They're trying to get more power out of it. They're trying to get longer life cycles out of it. And they're trying to
00:05:52
Speaker
keep the temperature cool, which allows you to do a lot of different things. If you do that, you also get faster charging without damaging the cell. We've worked with these chemists and we've said it out loud before. This is a lithium ion-based battery, but the other chemicals in it lower the resistance of that cell. When you lower the resistance, you lower the heat. When you lower the heat, you can get more power.
00:06:17
Speaker
It can accept energy faster. So you can charge faster and you can also have a longer life cycle out of it. So that's what we brought to market was something to change the game. And then once we had that battery, it was even better from a product standpoint, right? That's where you get excited when you have somebody that says, okay, you have a battery pack that can give you more power than where you
Future Products and Meeting Extreme User Needs
00:06:36
Speaker
are today. And you can utilize a hundred percent of that power out of that cell, right?
00:06:41
Speaker
go design a product that can handle that power. Well, then you get excited. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. At that point, we were able to go and we benchmarked and took the best selling gas product in each of the categories, a 30 cc string trimmer and said, go give us a product R&D team, R&G engineering team that matches the performance of that gas product. Not as good as, not like gas, but is gas.
00:07:08
Speaker
So everything from our 35 Newton backpack blower to our string trimmer to our edger is simply a gas product that's powered by our battery pack. We just reviewed, removed the, the fuel tank and replaced it with a battery. Okay. That's cool. One question I do have. So our business lander Corp is more of a forestry, I don't want to say logging, uh, but heavy tree removal. So we'll use a light, a lot of the larger steel or Husqvarna, you know, the,
00:07:38
Speaker
I call them the commercial grade or the professional grade. Does Crest have stuff like that for like the more extreme users?
Cost and ROI of Battery Transition
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah, so it's always a good question. We can't get new product fast enough, quite honestly, but that's a good problem to have. But what we are doing, right, to take a step back, we do have a new top handle chainsaw that'll be launching in July, August of this year. I think it's August of this year, the KC320.
00:08:04
Speaker
Right. So it's going to run off of our new four amp hour nano pack battery. So we simply have developed a new battery. Uh, that is the same weight as a 2.5 amp hour lithium ion battery. So it's roughly about three pounds, maybe a little over three pounds.
00:08:21
Speaker
with a new top handle chainsaw. We've got that chainsaw out. Actually, it's over in California with a couple of landscapers using it to give us some feedback to make sure that we're right on the right path before we get into tooling. And so far, it's been phenomenal, right? The feedback's been great. We do have a chainsaw today, the KC 300, that can be used for felling trees.
00:08:46
Speaker
Now what we don't have currently is a chainsaw that has, you know, a 36 inch bar on it. Right. So we are working in the roadmap to get up to that higher CC level. So I'd say our current chainsaw is probably in that 50 ish 55 ish CC level. But we're working and have plans because you got to take into account the motor technology.
00:09:09
Speaker
and gearing and everything when you get into the 65 or 75 cc level to get to those bigger bars and chains. You also need to have the right battery technology because we know when you get into those bigger bars, you're not making a ton of cuts with it, but you do need to make sure that battery technology is going to get you through at least one or two cuts. I was just curious. Travis, you haven't asked a question yet and I know you have some.
00:09:36
Speaker
to see the evolution that's come so much as far as power. And there's always been the trade-off of size and size of the battery and the power and longevity and how fast you can charge. And it's just this constant balancing act of, and then cost too. Where do you, for the evolution that you've seen over the last couple of years, cost is always a challenge or has been historically in that they could potentially see the upfront cost of the batteries.
00:10:05
Speaker
I've seen the battery powered stuff come down quite a bit, even over the last six, seven months as innovation and technology evolves. Where are we at as far as ROI over time for people investing in the battery powered technologies and them being able to show ROI within the first year, two years, three years.
Noise Reduction Benefits
00:10:28
Speaker
And I get that fuel is going to play a factor in that as gas prices go up. It's easier to show that ROI.
00:10:34
Speaker
But that's constantly something that's in the back of people's mind. And especially if they haven't really looked at some of the newer stuff coming out, some of the evolution in it, they've got this legacy mindset of, well, that's just really expensive. I'll wait a couple of years. So where are we at on that as far as ROI and price to get into the battery powered stuff and then being able to turn a profit with it? Sure. No, that's a fair question and one that
00:11:01
Speaker
Landscapers are asking all the time, right from the national accounts to the two person crew that's taking care of neighborhood yards. The best way to think about it is looking at the when you're looking at the system and you're going to convert from gas to cordless the upfront
00:11:20
Speaker
shock of getting into court, this is probably the biggest, one of the biggest challenges right now, right? Maybe not the biggest, but one of, right? So let's just say that two-person crew is using a string trimmer, an edger, a backpack blower, of course, a pole trimmer or pole saw, which is going to be, a pole saw would be only a few times a year, not much.
00:11:40
Speaker
A pole head trimmer is going to be used quite often. String trimmer, edger, those types of things. And a 21 inch push mower, right? When you look at that, for a two person crew with our cyber tank, you would really only need four batteries, right? For a two person crew, because the cyber tank, again, can charge those batteries so quickly during the day. So when you, a two person crew, if they finance that package over five years, they start, they'll save $2,000 per year per crew.
00:12:10
Speaker
right from an ROI standpoint. Now, the reason for that is because we're with the technology, you don't have to buy as many batteries upfront. And also the warranty on the batteries is six years or 3000 life cycles. Now again, if we were to do that from a lithium ion standpoint, right, if we were to say, hey, Mr. Landscaper, we've got a lithium ion solution for you, if you use those same products,
00:12:39
Speaker
minimum you're gonna need anywhere between 25 and 30 lithium-ion batteries to get through a single day and a lithium-ion battery typically only has a life of about 300 cycles 300 to 350 cycles so call it roughly maybe a year and a half 18 months to two years for these guys so every two years they're going to have to reinvest into those batteries
00:13:06
Speaker
All right. So hold on. Let me, let me take a step back. Cause there's probably going to be somebody out there that's going to say, well, hold on Todd, right. A life cycle, the warranty doesn't mean it's actually dead. Okay. So let's take a step back. They are 100
Safety and Health Advantages of Cordless Tools
00:13:19
Speaker
% right. What the industry does is from a warranty standpoint, the industry basically says is once the battery gets to 80% charge capacity, we consider that to be the warranty to be over. Right. So you're going to start seeing degradation and performance after that, meaning
00:13:36
Speaker
may take longer to charge, your runtime is going to go shorter and shorter because the battery cells have started to wear down, right? Not a technical term, but that's kind of what's happening. So lithium ion batteries will, over a course of time, right? And our lithium ion batteries carry up a certain warranty, everybody else does, but their life cycles are 300 and 350 life cycles before it hits that 80% charge, right? That 80% charge rate.
00:14:08
Speaker
So with our Cyber Pack batteries, it's the same thing, right? We have 3,000 life cycles, six year warranty or 3,000 life cycles, but our 3,000 life cycles are based at 80% discharge rate when you charge it in eight minutes. So if you're not charging in eight minutes every single day of the week, right, you're gonna get longer life out of those batteries as well.
00:14:35
Speaker
When I say life cycles and, hey, every two years, you're going to have to replace those batteries or every 18 months. After 18 months, you're going to get shorter runtime because that cell is not performing at its peak capacity like it was when you first bought it. That's where the ROI starts to really come in. Because you're buying your fuel now and you no longer have to buy it for another six years,
00:14:59
Speaker
With a standard lithium ion battery, again, we make it ourselves. But if I went to a contractor and said, hey, in two years, if you want the same runtime performance as you have when you first buy it, in about 18 months, you're going to have to buy another battery. And you're going to have to buy that many batteries over and over again. So I didn't buy an electric. So it's a competitor. I won't mention their name to Chris.
00:15:30
Speaker
for push mower and for a couple other things in swappable batteries. So one is it was about an hour. It's not very extreme use, but I run an entire battery down in about an hour doing the push mower. But that was one of the things that I really appreciated or liked. It was not having to store gas.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Just not having to mess with that stuff. Awesome. Yeah, there's a few advantages. I was thinking in my head, you know, until you have the ROI, then you also have what Travis is talking about, where I'm thinking like, if I'm doing my yard here, and there's a house right next door, another one across the street, it's a lot nicer to not have all of the noise associated with all the gas equipment. Because there is a crew here locally that uses mostly electric, and it's really quiet.
00:16:22
Speaker
So you have that aspect for the homeowner and the neighbor, which is a, which is a benefit. But then, uh, the other one too. So Atlanta Corp, we're super safety conscious in our industry, but you also have the hearing protection and the, and the, and the risk from all of that noise. So if you have an employee that's been doing this for years, you know, you guys have both run a traditional chainsaw weed eater. If you do that for hours a day, you feel it in your ear. If you do not have ear protection in.
00:16:50
Speaker
So that's also another nice little benefit for the Crest type products is you're reducing that risk or annoyance to the customer as well. Yeah. The
Communication Improvements with Cordless Tools
00:17:01
Speaker
part that we hear, we're starting to hear more and more from the larger landscapers to the individual guys is the strong benefit of cordless.
00:17:11
Speaker
is it lowers the noise, right? So it's honestly like you and I are having a conversation, is the noise level that you're hearing. It's roughly around 65 decibels is our backpack battery, or not battery, excuse me, our backpack blower, right? As compared to a gas blower, which is somewhere between 85-ish, 80 to 85-ish decibels. So when you're using our backpack blower, a cordless backpack blower, you're able to have a conversation without yelling at each other.
00:17:41
Speaker
The other part is you're also reducing vibration versus a gas product. So not only are you the benefit of reducing the noise, so your ears aren't ringing at the end of the day, but you're also not feeling that vibration of that gas mode, gas combustible engine. Just think about sitting in your car when it's idle, you're sitting at a gas stoplight, you can feel the vibration in it.
00:18:08
Speaker
Well, somebody got a backpack blower on their back all day long. They're feeling that vibration. If they're using a gas string trimmer, they're feeling that vibration, right? So it's not only a health benefit to reduce the noise, but it's also a health benefit just from using the product overall to reduce wear and tear on, on, on your joints and bones and muscles. The entire reason why I ended up getting the electric to start with was noise is, uh, I'm usually up pretty early in the morning and.
00:18:37
Speaker
I wanted to be able to mow during that time. It's still kind of dark out. I was like, there's no way I'm doing this with the traditional gas. And I was even kind of nervous when I got it and ran it for the first couple of times, talked to the neighbor like, nah, we didn't hear anything. So that was definitely the motivating factor. But this was actually a conversation that we had with a couple of crews at one of the expos.
00:18:59
Speaker
that had moved to electric powered equipment and running some of their operation was they were talking about one safety and communication was changing. And it was something that they weren't anticipating in that typically the audible noise of a gas powered chainsaw is the indicator that something's going on. And people typically stayed out of
Efficiency and Maintenance Reduction
00:19:23
Speaker
the area. And one of the challenges they initially ran into was
00:19:26
Speaker
It was quiet enough that people were walking into maybe danger areas or safety hazards because they didn't realize that something was going on and that they had to change the way they communicated with each other on their crews. There's interesting how unintended consequences or things, how they'll manifest in that regard. But yeah, noise and safety. I think it's pretty apparent one. Do they set up like a drop zone combs or something like that maybe?
00:19:55
Speaker
They weren't so I Mean, it's been a few months I don't I don't recall that being part of the solution, but I can't imagine that wouldn't be I think they were just more audible Communication with each other looking around. Yeah hollering at each other I'm working here Kicks I did that the nice part. So with us we use
00:20:21
Speaker
the little Bluetooth. So it's a headset for ear protection, but also we can communicate to each other. So that's nice too. Sometimes when you're running, you know, traditional saw or something like that, it is hard to still hear in that headpiece where you're doing something like this. I can still run it and probably still hear you guys yelling at me to say, Hey, stop. So, Oh yeah. Yeah. With cordless, you definitely can't with a chainsaw, right? I mean, really all you're hearing on cordless of that is just the chain cut in the tree at that point.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah. So now it's a good point though Travis, if you're using electric, which honestly you should be doing this anyway, but set up your little perimeter, flag it off, zone it off so that people know, Hey, this is a work zone. Stay out of it. But yeah, that the safety components and just like not having to deal with the oil and gas and storage and maintenance and safety components with that. I mean, cost aside, just the, the additional considerations that you have to take into account when you're using
00:21:19
Speaker
petroleum products like that. Your maintenance costs are also going to go down as well. It's not only your fuel costs, but your maintenance costs are going to go down. You've got guys that are out there, landscapers have been mixing fuel for a long time, but if they don't mix it the right way, then you've got more maintenance costs. If you don't maintain your combustion engine, you're going to have more maintenance costs. If you don't do the normal maintenance or...
Trends and Regulations Driving Cordless Adoption
00:21:42
Speaker
Not only do you get your
00:21:45
Speaker
fuel savings out of it, but you also get your maintenance savings out of it as well when you flip from gas to cordless. You don't have to worry about maintaining spark plugs or air filters or oil filters. It just doesn't exist anymore because you're switching everything over to a brushless motor and you don't have to worry about it. Where do you see over the next six months in the year, where do you see the evolution? Anything crazy coming down the pipeline?
00:22:11
Speaker
massive evolutions in the industry, technology, battery power. Is there anything crazy coming? Oh, man. Battery technology is going to continue to advance. I'm proud of where we are with Crest, but we're going to continue to advance battery technology as quickly as we can. I think what we're going to see is probably more industry related versus technology related.
00:22:38
Speaker
And what I mean by that is we're all aware of government regulations that are out there, right? The contractors are well aware of them. Professional contractors, landscapers are well aware of them as well. But I think that's really what's going to be a tipping point for a lot of people is they're being forced.
Crest's Free Trial to Boost Confidence in Cordless
00:22:57
Speaker
That force is a strong, strong word, but it might be appropriate, right? You've got local regulations. You've got homeowner association regulations. You've got regional government.
00:23:08
Speaker
federal coming in stating that for the reasons we just spoke about, noise is the biggest thing of we're banning the use of gas blowers, of backpack blowers. All right, well, where are you gonna turn? At that point, you only have one choice, you have to go cordless. I think we're gonna see a lot more of the national landscapers start to look at it, heavily look at it, and it's more probably
00:23:36
Speaker
For them, I believe it's gonna be focused around the safety aspect for their employees. Just from conversations I've been a part of, and I'm not saying I've been a part of a lot of them, I'm not claiming that, but the little bit that I've participated with those national accounts, I think they're looking at it more from a safety standpoint for their employee base versus anything else, right? And then cost savings is gonna come into play as well, right? They're not gonna switch just because of one, they need to have a win-win on both.
00:24:07
Speaker
So I think you're going to see a lot more, not think, you're going to see a lot more contractors jumping to cordless because there now is a solution for them that gives them what they're used to and gas. It just in a cordless solution now. Right. Is there anybody in the industry that's really involved themselves in the cordless and the battery technology and operation who's doing it better than others that
00:24:37
Speaker
People could look to you as kind of an example, as far as the operations, but any national accounts. I mean, I think everybody is playing with it, but is anybody indexed heavily on that and is doing it successfully at this point? Yeah. So there's, there's quite a few landscapers, like from a national account standpoint, I'd say state green is probably one that's pushing quickly.
00:25:04
Speaker
And they've got locations all the way from the Carolinas down through Florida. And they're doing a great job with it. There's quite a few over on the West Coast that are in the process of making the conversion. They're getting into the trials and making sure that the efficiencies of converting from gas to cordless are there, right? They're not spending any more time on a project or a property
00:25:34
Speaker
which they're not, making sure that the user is ultimately the guy that's using it, the person that's using the product is happy with the results.
Marketing Quietness and Environmental Benefits
00:25:42
Speaker
And then 99% of the time they are, right? One of the things that Crest is doing a little bit differently in the industry than most people, well, than anybody right now is we're running from a dealer standpoint, we're working with our dealers for a 10 day free trial, right? So if you are a commercial landscaper,
00:26:03
Speaker
and you want to switch to cordless, we are offering a 10-day free trial. Now, here's what we're asking though, right? We wanted to have at least two crews. We want one crew to continue using gas as your benchmark, and the other crew, we're gonna completely take all of your handheld product, all your gas product off your trailer and replace it with Crest Cordless, right? With the batteries and the cyber tank, and have you use it for 10 days. You've got one control crew, so you know exactly how much fuel you've used,
00:26:33
Speaker
during that same 10-day period and how much electricity you've used in that same 10-day period to really get to a point where you're comfortable with your own ROI calculation to know that it's really going to save you money. There's not too many other companies in the industry that are offering a 10-day free trial. But again, we also know we've got to put our money where our mouth is. We are confident that when you use our cordless product and we are more confident after you use it, you will convert because it will save you money.
00:27:03
Speaker
But we wanna take that fear of change away from somebody to know that they can use it and they're gonna get the same look, feel, power, performance that they have today with gas. Again, we're just powered by a battery. So I've got two questions. How many 10 day consecutive trials can one sign up for? And then if a two crew minimum, if I employ my wife, can that count as one crew and be the second crew?
00:27:30
Speaker
I'm not sure. I think you're focusing more on professional landscapers versus individuals on that one. I've been getting really good at my yard. I can imagine. I love that. That gives an easy way for somebody to come who's maybe apprehensive or doesn't know where to start. That gives an easy way for them to start testing. And they can at least dispel fact from fiction. This works for me.
00:27:59
Speaker
I can see how I can integrate this or I'm not ready for it, but at least they can get some sort of data point in there and start to dispel maybe rumor mill from what they could actually utilize and how close they are for their operation. And the biggest reason we're doing is like, we can talk with any dealer or any landscaper and say that there is a savings, right? But until you have an opportunity to try it yourself,
00:28:24
Speaker
and prove to yourself that there is a savings for converting to cordless and I'm not losing any efficiency. I'm not losing any power. That's when you start believing, right? To say it is one thing to actually be able to do it as a completely different piece of it.
Quietness as a Selling Point
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm just in here thinking like, if I'm a listener and I, and I own a landscape lawn care company, what can I,
00:28:50
Speaker
do to put myself above the competition. I'm thinking of a company that would be, maybe they're doing apartment buildings or they're doing, you know, more luxury type of accounts. One of my biggest selling points is going to be the quietness. You know, internally the cost savings is a benefit externally to the customer. I'm like, Hey, you're, you have all these people in this apartment. We have no idea what their sleep schedule is. When we come there, we're going to be as quiet as possible where you have a luxury
00:29:21
Speaker
you know, a nicer account where maybe they have, you know, it's an office building or it's whatever. It's a huge benefit for that quietness. So anyway, just from a marketing standpoint, I see so much opportunity for a listener to be like, hey, this is actually, we're innovating in this area. You can, you know, market the environmental part. You can internally, you can say, hey, we have an ROI, but then also you can market the whole, you know, this is a quieter,
00:29:49
Speaker
less noisy thing to be in your yard while you're on a zoom call or I was really thinking today, my lawn guys are supposed to be here. I'm like, I hope they're not here. Why I'm on the zoom call because my yard is right here. So you don't know, Brent, they might be, they just switched over to Crest Battery Power. That's why I don't know here yet. Ninja like. One of our, one of the best feedback that we have along the same, the same line to Brent is we had,
00:30:17
Speaker
I forget who the landscaper was or the company was, but it kind of proved at that point. We had one of our guys working with them, and the homeowner called them back and said, hey, weren't you supposed to be here to take care of my yard today? And their comment was, we were already there. It was two hours ago. They're like, what do you mean? Yeah, we switched over to using cordless. She's like, I didn't even know you guys were in the yard, right? So they had gone in, gone in, taken care of everything. The homeowner didn't hear anything, right?
00:30:47
Speaker
was like, Hey, what happened?
Adoption and Benefits of Robotic Lawnmowers
00:30:49
Speaker
So they were, they were very happy with it, but that is a big selling point. I think to your point, Brent, COVID probably brought that to life the most when everybody had to readjust from working from home. Um, previously when you're at, at work, nobody really knew when the landscaper came, right? They would come during the day. They plan out to schedule to be there during the day. But when you are working from home and you hear that buzz of a backpack blower in the background, all of a sudden it becomes,
00:31:17
Speaker
almost frustrating because you can hear it and you're inside your house and they may be, you know, a block, not a block down, but you know, at your neighbor's house, you're like, what is that noise? Where is it coming from? Then you look out and it's, it's the landscaper with a backpack blower, you know, blowing the sidewalks off or blowing the lease up. And it's a huge benefit to have a cordless program because there is not going to say no noise, right? Cause it's not, there's not zero noise, but it is very quiet to use. And one of the things too, that,
00:31:47
Speaker
that we're starting to see, and it's in its infancy stage right now, but it's picking up a lot of steam, is utilization of robotic lawnmowers, right? So robotic lawnmowers have been around for a number of years. I couldn't even tell you how many years, right? They've all been boundary wire, which some people were okay with, but boundary wire has its
00:32:15
Speaker
drawbacks, the installation of it and the maintenance of it. Typically, those boundary wire would mow in a random pattern. In the US, we've gotten pretty much accustomed as we wanted to mow in a pattern to make it look like it's a smart robot, like we have inside for a vacuum. When it vacuums our carpet, we want to delete carpet lines like we would. We're starting to see landscapers adopt robotic lawnmowers as a service. They're putting robotic lawnmowers in
00:32:44
Speaker
um, residential yards, their robotic lawnmowers are great because they always mow, right? They never take a day off. Um, they're always mowing and the more you mow, the better your, the healthier grass is. But a benefit of that, like we were talking about before is you don't have a noise of a ZTR coming once a week and cutting your grass. Your grass is always manicured. So we have our Crest mission and mega robotics that use RTK technology.
00:33:14
Speaker
And we'll mow in patterns, right? So you can mow in, uh, you know, north, south, east, west, and a few weeks we're launching an update. So
Testing Robotic Mowers in Commercial Settings
00:33:23
Speaker
you can mow in checkerboard patterns or diamond patterns, but it's on its way, not yet, but it's on its way. Actually one of the feedback we got in Europe, um, which Europe's way ahead of the U S as far as adoption of robotic lawnmowers, right?
00:33:43
Speaker
robotic lawnmowers almost have 16 to 17% market penetration of all lawnmowers in Europe. In the US, we're less than 1% right now, even if we're, we might be less than half a percent. But with the technology that's coming out with what Crest offers is there's no more boundary wire, right? Installation is really simple. And you can mow in patterns, right? It's now a smart robot. So with Europe, what I was getting to with the team in Europe, what they found out from
00:34:13
Speaker
soccer fields, the football teams over there, the soccer teams, they wanted the ability to mow their logos into their soccer fields. So lo and behold, in the background, we're starting to work on that, to have the ability. It's not there yet, but as firmware updates go, at some point I could see that, yes, we're hoping that you'd be able to take the ability to load an image into your app and
00:34:40
Speaker
let the mower go mow a better contractor than somebody's lawn, right? Like with all technologies, I think it's a double-edged sword. It's going to be really cool until the ex-girlfriend or boyfriend hacks into it and decides to design your yard. Oh, come on. Let's get the adoption of robotic lawnmowers up first before we start to tell people not to laugh, right? It's going to be amazing too. On the other side, it's going to have some really cool batteries. Yeah. Yeah. So we're starting to see golf courses, sports fields, parks and recs.
00:35:11
Speaker
really start to entertain robotic lawnmowers. One, because they're always mowing, right? So they're saving gas or saving maintenance. But also, I mean, let's also talk about the real reason about it, too, is labor is becoming an issue, right? The availability of labor across states is a concern for professional landscapers. And if you're able to overcome that by confidence in a robotic lawnmower and what it can do,
00:35:38
Speaker
then all you're doing at that point is visiting that property and you're string trimming, hedging, and blowing. Your time on that property has gone down by a lot. You have the ability to cover more properties or more yards in a single day if you have robotic lawn mowers working for you. From a commercial standpoint, what does that look like? Are they housing that mower at that property then and it's mowing every morning, every day? Yeah. We're working with a few golf courses right now to test them out.
00:36:09
Speaker
Also a couple, uh, in, in Florida, a couple, uh, parks and rec.
Development of Larger Robotic Mowers
00:36:14
Speaker
So the, we have the units that they're using are the two 33 and two 36 of six acre and nine acre units. And they will start knowing. So on a practice field, like if it's a sports field, you can only be on that field for a certain amount of time. Right. Or a golf course. Obviously you're not going to have it running when you've got the course open.
00:36:38
Speaker
So they're using it to mow the rough areas. Some are using it to mow fairways. We're not doing anything with greens, right? We do not have, nor does any robotic mower have the technology to do greens. That is a specialty, right? That is 100% a specialty. But they're basically working with it to schedule the robot around their watering schedule.
00:37:06
Speaker
It can mow at night, right? It doesn't need to be supervised. It can mow at night with the safety features it has built in. So you basically are working around your watering schedule. Um, and then when people are on, on that course or on that field. That's awesome. The golf course here by our house needs to have that. So we can make that happen. We know people. I'm assuming it also knows when it's raining, correct?
00:37:34
Speaker
Yes sir it does yeah when it's raining it will go back to its docking its charging station it will hang out until it's stopped raining and then you can set the sensor we the default is three hours once it stops raining after three hours it'll go back out but you can change that to an hour two hours whatever you're comfortable with and the nice part is is as it's bowing all the time the grass is always short and it doesn't weigh a lot
00:38:03
Speaker
So even if it goes back out after 30 minutes of it raining, you don't have to worry about the weight of it or leaving wheel marks because it's not a standard ZTR, right? It's not going to weigh whatever a standard ZTR would weigh. So you don't have to worry about the mud tracks going into the ground as well. Is nine acres the largest one you have currently? It is. Yeah, we're working on one for much larger acreage that will be testing about two months.
00:38:33
Speaker
So we've got samples coming over in end of May, beginning of June, so we can test throughout the rest of spring and all of summer on a larger acreage, larger deck size as well. Have you guys sold any to the solar industry yet to mow underneath panels and around panels? Not yet, but we're working, I won't say we're working on it. We've had a lot of interest from the solar group. We're working with one right now to test with them.
Robotic Mowers in Solar Farms
00:39:03
Speaker
The great part is with RTK, you have an antenna that is stationary, so it doesn't have to be on property. We're building a network of our antennas across the country with our dealer network, and one antenna has a radius of 10 miles, but our ideal is to have antennas basically spaced out like a triangle. In each point, there's roughly 35 miles between each point that
00:39:33
Speaker
And in between there, everything's covered. So we're getting that network built out to allow coverage across 80% to 85% of the US. That's cool. What's been the apprehension for solar not picking it up as rapidly? Because that seems like it would be a slam dunk for them. So it's really not an apprehension. It's really just the, well, let me rephrase that.
00:40:02
Speaker
Their apprehension is they've tried robotic motors before in the past and hasn't done what they wanted to do, right? Now that could have been because of the technology that they were using, whether it was boundary wire or different technology. Um, but with anything from an investment standpoint, just like we were talking about with the 10 day free trial, they want to make sure that the technology works. Right. So the great part is, is when you have a, the network built, um, the antenna does not have to be on property.
00:40:29
Speaker
Most antennas, if you have it next to a solar field, the solar flares actually get in the way of the signal, just like the old direct TV days when it was, you know, 3 p.m. in the afternoon, the sun was brightest, you were going to get disruptions in your TV service because the solar flares were hitting it. So that antenna is remote, and that robot is working flawlessly in between there, but they just want to make sure and prove out the concept that it will be able to do what they need, right? It's also looking at the number of robots that they need based on
00:40:59
Speaker
having a larger acreage, right? We have a nine acre unit, so it's really planning it out the right way to make sure we're efficiently covering that solar farm. Seems like this would be a good opportunity for a company to come in and provide that service for them so they don't have to worry about it. Absolutely. We're trying. There's any companies out there, anybody listening?
00:41:19
Speaker
Hey, call press. We're more than willing to work with you. We're here for you. Yeah. Yeah. The issue Travis is some of them are like, there's one here near us. It's I think 700 acres, you know, inside. So yeah, it's a lot of mowers. That is, that is, but I mean, it, it comes down to somebody's maintaining that. Right. Um, so, and some of the other things too, right. The, the reason they, again, not apprehension, but cautious maybe.
00:41:48
Speaker
When it rains underneath, like underneath of those solar panels, you'll get those kind of mud rain gutters and stuff, right? So you just have to take the time to map it out correctly to make sure it's going to function every day that you want it to melt. So again, I think it's just cautious versus apprehension. Like anything, you want to make sure it's going to work out and prove out the right way.
Robotic Mowers and Labor Market Impact
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah. And Travis, some places use goats. I mean,
00:42:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to argue. You probably write the land off double tax exempt for green energy and for agriculture. Right. Solar farm and goat farm all wrapped up. So there was there was a conversation that I had with somebody who they're doing commercial and registered residential they went. So they're out on the west coast. So they have like three or four large robotic mowers in the way they're
00:42:48
Speaker
doing it is they're dropping it off on site. Their crews, their physical crews are just doing detail work while those things mow that the open areas, they take them over to the next site and they kind of do this leapfrogging thing throughout the day. And then at the end of the day, they'll drop those mowers off at the next day's properties and let them work for an hour to pass dusk and gain that time back where their crews aren't having to waste that time the next day.
00:43:18
Speaker
And so one of the things she was saying was those were too expensive because there's the, do I leave them at the property and just let them constantly maintain or do I take them with? She said it was too cost prohibitive for the mowers that they were using to just sit them on a property. They just couldn't charge as much. So they had to take them from property to property. But then we also had somebody on the podcast who's doing the residential
00:43:44
Speaker
side and they're doing much smaller robotics and their entire model is to, it's a lease program essentially. They're going to leave them at the homes and that's just going to constantly maintain and they'll work out a schedule where the physical staff comes out as a detail work. Still thinks that balancing act, depending on what your use case is, how you're going to do it, what you can charge, and it's going to be different between commercial and residential and how much detail work, balancing that out. The best part of that statement though is
00:44:14
Speaker
You have the ability now to not only save gas and maintenance, but because of the labor concern, you have an option that gives you really good cutting performance without the concern of boundary wire, right? The installation of boundary wire or the maintenance of boundary wire. And now it's becoming an option, right? Now you have a smart technology that will mow in patterns
00:44:43
Speaker
with easy installation and allows you to approach your business a different way. More on the philosophical side of this, and it actually goes to a question about maintenance. So every time we see an evolution where technology is displaced, jobs, that's one concern that people have as these new technologies come in.
00:45:11
Speaker
And it's actually, it might be a false concern too, in that these robotic mowers will then take jobs away from people who could mow, but in reality, it's actually filling a void because that's the labor shortage that most companies are dealing with. That's a great point. Yeah. To do. And so it's not actually displacing, it's filling a void or a gap that currently exists in the market.
Leveraging Robotics and Cordless for Business Growth
00:45:34
Speaker
But even that being,
00:45:37
Speaker
is every time that we've seen technology or things come in and disrupt industries, sometimes it does take jobs away, but it typically materializes in new jobs somewhere else. So drones, robotics, you now need to have somebody who understands the software, the robotic mowers, or the intricacies of handling that operation. That's a different skill set, a different labor pool.
00:46:04
Speaker
What is the maintenance and what is the skill set required to actually put this stuff into use in an operation? What's the learning curve? What type of skills do you need if you're going to deploy these out there? And is it drastically different skill sets and people you need? It may be slightly different, but it's really the technology of easy to install or is it difficult, right? The one thing that
00:46:32
Speaker
we're focused on is trying to make it as easy to install as you can. Obviously, no matter what you do, no matter what technology, you do need training on it. From our standpoint, with the robotics that we have for Crest, you have a mapping cart that you use. You basically put your phone on, you connect the robot to the phone, the phone to the robot, and then you just basically walk your property to create your border and your keep out areas.
00:47:02
Speaker
The ability to do that isn't necessarily a different skill set, but you do need training on being able to do that piece of it. Now, as you get into larger robotics, we'll call them, there's companies out there today that have larger deck robots that you may need to staff somebody that's more electrical engineering focused, more technology focused,
00:47:32
Speaker
so they can understand how to overcome issues if they're there, right? You're still going to have mechanical things you have to replace, whether it's blades or wheels, those types of things. But with any technology, if you need to replace a board, a wire harness, those types of things, you'll need somebody that has a comfort level with doing that. That was, there was some panel or a group of people in the industry
00:47:58
Speaker
I think it was a webinar, but people, multiple operators in the industry, that was one of the key things they all agreed on was that more and more companies need to start employing somebody who's dedicated towards technology. They weren't as far as electrical engineer, but it's a good point that people who understand technology can analyze it, even from a strategic point of view, integrated into their companies.
00:48:26
Speaker
figure out what works, what doesn't, what should they use? They could do basic maintenance or at least communicate with the manufacturer in a reasonable way. Like from our, the Crest dealer partners that we have that are selling robotics, right? They've got a dedicated person for robotics to understand Crest robotics, understand how to install it. If there's troubleshooting that needs to be done, you know, what the proper steps are for troubleshooting.
00:48:56
Speaker
Then they also have one person that's dedicated to the sales of robotics, right? Because it's a different sales process as well to take somebody that may be considering a push-mower or ZTR and say, hey, have you thought about this before, right? You know, even from a landscaper standpoint, helping them understand what the benefits are. So, you know, again, I'm not going to belabor the point of labor because it's an issue or it's not for you, wherever you are.
00:49:24
Speaker
The other part is the way to look at is if you're using robots as a service, if you have a two person crew, just imagine taking those two people and splitting them. So now you have two crews, but you have robots doing your mowing for you. Now you have the ability to expand your business, right? To do more properties per day. So you have a way to expand your business and make more money out of it as well. Right? So there's a lot of different ways to think about implementation of technology, whether it's,
00:49:51
Speaker
on the professional landscaper side with the battery technology that we have with the cyber pack and the cyber tank. Or if you're looking at it from a different standpoint and utilizing robots to improve your ROI because of labor concerns. So a lot of things can be can be looked at differently. It's just based on
00:50:10
Speaker
your business model and how you wanna go about
Conclusion: Call to Action for Innovation
00:50:12
Speaker
it. Todd, Travis, thank you so much for your time today. Guys, if you're listening to this and you are running a residential or commercial company that's in an urban area, gosh, guys, I would 100% be thinking about bringing on this innovation, this technology. Be ahead of your competition. If you were at the Equip Expo back in October, surely you can see how much investment in R&D and dollars are being put into the robotics
00:50:39
Speaker
Uh, the, the battery technology, it is going to be coming. So the quicker, the sooner, the better that you can implement this in your company. And like we said in the podcast, man, from a labor shortage standpoint, this is a viable solution to that problem. So think about it. If you guys are loving this podcast, please share it with others. If you don't like it, you can just turn it off. But anyway, Todd Travis, thank you so much. Look for the next podcast. See you guys.