Flemish government invests in group purchase of robotic mowers

The Flemish Region is investing massively in the purchase of sports infrastructure. This "sports spurt" led to the organization of a large number of group purchases at the end of 2021, including professional robotic mowers. Belrobotics, a division of Yamabiko Europe, was selected to supply these machines. Geoffrey de Bloeme, regional sales manager Europe, explains how this deal came about.

Through the Sportspurt project, Flanders is investing heavily in sports infrastructure. A total of 109 sports infrastructure projects are involved, spread across 81 Flemish municipalities, which should give the sporting experience in Flanders a new boost. "Sports providers - ranging from local authorities to sports clubs - are given the opportunity to enter into a group purchase for sports infrastructure," Geoffrey de Bloeme points out. "In addition to artificial turf fields, Finnish slopes and LED lighting poles, for example, these providers obviously also need professional garden machinery. Robotic mowers are part of this package, and this is where Belrobotics' extensive range comes in."

Solid reputation

"Over the past decades, Yamabiko Europe has built a solid reputation in the field of automatic mowers for large areas," says de Bloeme. "Indeed, we design, manufacture and sell mowers for surfaces up to 20,000 m², as well as robots that collect golf balls. With our Belrobotics brand, we focus on machines for maintaining sports fields, among other things. Our Bigmow Connected Line and Parcmow Connected Line models are very popular with sports clubs, as they combine superior quality with safe and cost-effective use. Their radius of action is also impressive: the Bigmow can handle green spaces up to as much as 24,000 m²."

"Moreover, via the deployment of the advanced RTK-GPS technology - which can be installed on all models of the Connected Line range - a groundsman can save a lot of time, as mowing the same grass spots is avoided to the maximum extent. Thanks to this technology, mowing capacity is tripled, with a range of 45,000 m² for the Parcmow RTK and 75,000 m² for the Bigmow RTK."

Stringent quality standards

Following the Flemish government's group purchasing project, these and other strengths of the Belrobotics range came into focus. Because to be selected for this group purchase, the robotic mowers had to meet specific quality standards and technical requirements. "By responding to this tender, we can make an important contribution to a better climate and a professional sporting space," Geoffrey de Bloeme points out.

"Our robotic mowers meet necessary technical requirements, such as electric motors with low energy consumption, robots that meet the IPX4 standard (and are therefore splash-proof), mowers that operate fully autonomously and automatically return to the charging station when the battery is depleted, and machines that are fully programmable according to the desired mowing frequency. Both our Parcmow Connected Line and Bigmow Connected Line were chosen for this group purchase."

Razor-sharp rates

"A local board or sports club participating in a group purchase can choose from either model," de Bloeme said. "The Parcmow can mow areas of at least 10,000 m², while the Bigmow kicks into action for areas of at least 20,000 m²."

"This purchase - with a term of four years - expires in November 2025 and also offers the possibility of purchasing both our Belrobotics models together or separately. In any case, you can enjoy very competitive prices, with a nice discount of up to 18 percent. A Parcmow mower with a recommended price of 8,890 euros excluding VAT will then cost just 7,289 euros. Please note that this discount does not apply to the RTK option, as this technology was not yet available at the time of the tender. Orders should be forwarded to Sport Flanders, which will then transfer them to Machineland, a specialist business in garden machinery."