The art of perfect turf

Behind the idyllic image of a tightly maintained soccer field or golf course lies an industry that thrives on experience, innovation and craftsmanship. A frontrunner in this world is Hendriks Graszoden, an established name in Europe. In 2025, the ambitious company will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and that means every job is backed by half a century of expertise and passion!

Erik Hendriks, director, explains, "As a loyal supplier for both FIFA and UEFA, we guarantee advice from top experts. Our aim is to create natural grass pitches for our clients, ranging from World Cup stadiums to both league and non league pitches. Hendriks Sport Development also specializes in the design and maintenance of those sports fields. Because of our cartload of experience, we have a suitable solution for every challenge!"

UEFA standards as standard for quality ground

Erik Hendriks: "To begin with, we build the subsoil for our turf here ourselves. We use our 'mother' soil for this, in combination with supplied sand, which must meet quite a few requirements. Indeed, this must fully correspond to the standards that the UEFA, and also Hendriks Graszoden strives for. The standards, which must be met perfectly by both us and the soccer club, mainly have to do with water infiltration. In short, the granular composition of the turf is identical to that of the local subsoil. In this way, no disturbing layer is created that can retain water." The DIN 18035 standardization is leading here for natural, and hybrid fields for both granularity, mineralization and grass composition."

Logistics masterpiece

"We can also replace an entire turf field in a soccer stadium in 24 hours," Erik continues. "So removal of the existing ánd placement of the new mat. For this we have built a truly gigantic logistical apparatus. Because of course you want the grass on the roll as quickly as possible, by that I mean from harvesting to rolling out." "Once such a project starts, a truck comes in here just about every half hour, to pick up turf. We can harvest the grass and fully load the truck in just 20 minutes. Then, on the stadium side, of course, the same thing happens, but vice versa. That "little train," from harvesting to placing the turf, we have completely optimized over the last 20 years. It goes from perfect levelling of the ground, via the laying machines, to finishing the seams of the turf. Afterwards, of course, the entire area is then cleaned, checked for any 'mistakes' and rolled."

From K'NEX to custom precision machines

"That obviously cannot be done without being 100% optimized. We therefore have a large number of self-developed machines running. For example, we have - the absolute only one in the world - a harvester that can cut rolls 2.40 meters wide. That width, by the way, is just double what is usual on the market. So per roll we are talking about 36 m2 of grass: 2.40 x 15 meters! In fact, at the time, the harvesting machine was literally developed by us - four Hendriks brothers - in K'NEX. On this basis, an agricultural machine was bought, of which only the steel frame remained, and even that was modified. Once we had that machine, the laying machine was developed. And so on ..."

"In short, we can place and finish an entire field of about 8,000 m2 with our machines within 12 hours. And because our rolls are much longer and wider than the market standard, you create 70% fewer seams than is usually the case. This is how you ensure a safe workplace for top football players," concludes Erik Hendriks.