Allen's go Continental

Allen's go Continental



Their HQ is in the aptly named Landscape Close at Weston-on-the-Green near Oxford, and from here they manage the national contracts ranging from Poole in the south to Livingston near Edinburgh.

It is an interesting fact that the nucleus of their Managers have been around since 1991, and one of these loyal breed is Tom Dew, the Plant & Machinery Manager.

Tom has an interesting track record being a farmer with a Cornish background. He waxed lyrical about his Company and is obviously a 'Continental' man at heart.

He spends a lot of time on the road covering around 60,000 miles a year but he was tracked down to one of his offices near Banbury to talk about his recent purchase of Allen equipment.

Allen are working with their professional customers and their suppliers to provide machines to cope with the harshness of commercial use and adhere to the numerous rules and regulations that cover the use of outdoor power equipment.

Continental now have a considerable fleet of Allen equipment, including two and four stroke hover mowers and an array of Komatsu Zenoah brushcutters and hedgecutters plus hand held and back pack blowers.

Tom particularly likes the way the carburettor on the KZ brushcutter now has a protective cover over it. The model he favours is the BC4500, a 41.5cc unit with double handle bars and advanced anti-vibration system.

"Vibration levels are becoming more and more important," said Tom, and this of course is reflected in the choice of the machines he buys. "The Allen EB7000 62cc back pack blower cannot be beaten," continued Tom.

"The operators like them and so do the maintenance staff. The performance is high an the noise and vibration is low." Tom's machinery repair budget is massive so his service people's views are important.

Continental operate a sophisticated records system for their machinery and are looking to increase the life of the plant they buy. On the continent their machines have a much greater life span than in the UK and they are looking into why this is so and what steps have to be taken here eliminate these differences.


Photo: Tom Dew (L) discusses the advantages of the Allen BC4500 brushcutter with one of his fitters.

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