Hybrid grass provides safe playing conditions

Optimizing the quality of the game through innovation

Bertrand Picard founded Natural Grass in 2009 with the ambition to work on the future of sports infrastructure on grass. With the support of a solid R&D department, the company developed technologies that make it possible to design playing surfaces that are resistant, less harmful to athletes, and more respectful of the environment. Today, more than ten patents have been registered and the company boasts more than eighty top-level international references. Also in Belgium.  

A little history

Bertand Picard was convinced that the future of sports turf lay not in simply replacing natural grass with a plastic equivalent, but rather in using the natural enhanced by innovation. He surrounded himself with a multidisciplinary team - including agronomists, biomechanists and soil mechanics engineers - to develop the first innovative technology: AIRFIBR hybrid turf. The AIRFIBR hybrid turf consists of cork, sand and synthetic fibers. 

Marlène Pivard, marketing & communications manager: "The sand acts as a kind of skeleton to drain the water, cork was chosen for its resilience and excellent ability to absorb shock and release energy, while the synthetic fibers increase resistance thanks to a firm anchoring in the substrate. The improved turf surface was developed to reduce injuries by more than 40% and reduce summer water consumption by a factor of 3. A revolution at the time, when environmental issues were not a real concern in sports! Today, the company has a full range of hybrid turf systems and green innovations, allowing it to provide customized solutions for all its customers, regardless of their constraints."

Also in Belgium

Its prestigious references include Real Madrid, Arsenal, AS Monaco, Girondins de Bordeaux and l'Olympique de Marseille, but its reputation is truly global, with the Rugby World Cup in Japan and more than 15 references in North Africa. Domestically, Cercle Brugge has already approached the French company for its training center. Marlène Pivard: "Natural Grass has laid two pitches for the professionals and three pitches for the youth academy, while there is also a team of experts to maintain the sports fields."  

Maintenance

At the request of customers, the French manufacturer has also been diversifying into construction and maintenance activities since 2019. The design office focuses on designing customized, specific solutions. "Our projects are very technical. We always have to take into account the specifics of the stadium, whether there is underfloor heating or not, the use of light therapy, local climate conditions, and so on," says Marlène Pivard. "Our Innovation and Research Department has an excellent reputation. For example, we have developed the new Aquaflow technology, which reduces water requirements by 80% by storing water underground and releasing it in the summer through sub-irrigation. Innovation is a continuous process."  
        
  Natural Grass in brief

•          More than 80 references worldwide
•          Four subsidiaries: NG 
•          Benelux, Africa, Iberica and UK
•          More than one million sq. ft. of surfaces laid out this year
•          Ten maintenance sites: 2 international and 8 in France