Newsletter #2
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Internal News<br />
THE KUK’S FAVOURITE NEWSLETTER - December 2014<br />
AND THE WINNER IS……<br />
As you are all aware<br />
of the charity events<br />
that have been<br />
happening over the<br />
last couple of<br />
months, we all looked<br />
a bit mad but managed<br />
to raise over £100<br />
pounds for the 3 of<br />
them. A big thank you<br />
to all who gave<br />
contributions!<br />
Congratulations to<br />
the Genes for Jeans<br />
winners<br />
• Rachel Dymott<br />
• John Johnson<br />
• Liz King<br />
Winner for Wear it<br />
Pink<br />
• John Johnson<br />
ABOVE (top): Jeans for Jeans, (Middle): Wear it Pink (Bottom): Pudsey Day<br />
Congratulations to<br />
Lee Skinner who<br />
won the naming of<br />
the newsletter. He<br />
was enthusiastic<br />
to share the fact<br />
that ‘knews’ was<br />
inspired by his<br />
thoughts on the<br />
silent ‘K’.
ubota
orner<br />
★ "Hot cockles" was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. It was a game<br />
in which the other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to<br />
guess the name of the person delivering each blow. "Hot cockles" was still a<br />
Christmas pastime until the Victorian era<br />
★ A Christmas club, a savings account in which a person deposits a fixed amount<br />
of money regularly to be used at Christmas for shopping, came about around<br />
1905.<br />
★ A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared<br />
with mustard.<br />
★ According to a 1995 survey, 7 out of 10 British dogs get Christmas gifts from their<br />
doting owners.<br />
★ An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian<br />
Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring<br />
good luck.<br />
★ At lavish Christmas feasts in the Middle Ages, swans and peacocks were<br />
sometimes served "endored." This meant the flesh was painted with saffron<br />
dissolved in melted butter. In addition to their painted flesh, endored birds were<br />
served wrapped in their own skin and feathers, which had been removed and set<br />
aside prior to roasting.<br />
★ Christmas trees are edible. Many parts of pines, spruces, and firs can be eaten.<br />
The needles are a good source of vitamin C. Pine nuts, or pine cones, are also a<br />
good source of nutrition.<br />
★ There are two Christmas Islands.The Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean was<br />
formerly called Kiritimati. Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is 52 square<br />
miles.<br />
★ Mistletoe, a traditional Christmas symbol, was once revered<br />
by the early Britons. It was so sacred that it had to be cut with<br />
a golden sickle.<br />
★ More diamonds are purchased at Christmas-time (31<br />
percent) than during any other holiday or occasion during the<br />
year.
M7001 Series Launch<br />
in<br />
Once upon a time there was a<br />
Japanese company called Kubota.<br />
This company manufactured many<br />
diverse products including tractors.<br />
However, these were only little<br />
tractors, known in the industry as<br />
‘Compacts’. Kubota had dreams of<br />
competing with the larger tractors<br />
in the playground and set about its<br />
mission to start to realise this<br />
dream – the dawn of the F37<br />
project.<br />
This dream was achieved in<br />
September 2014 with the launch of<br />
the new M7001 series of<br />
tractors.<br />
No-one knows how the project<br />
became titled F37 but the<br />
prototype was born and everyone<br />
was very excited as this marked the<br />
beginning of a new era in the<br />
Tractor division. The product<br />
comes in three models of 130, 150<br />
and 170 horse power each with a<br />
powerboost to enable the engine<br />
to go up to 150, 170 and 175 HP<br />
respectively. It also comes with a<br />
choice of Powershift (much the<br />
same way as the automatic<br />
transmission in a car), CVT<br />
(constantly variable transmission)<br />
which was explained to me as the<br />
premiership of automatic<br />
transmission and hydraulic<br />
transmission.<br />
The range is to be called the M7001 range –<br />
M7131, M7151 and M7171. It wasn’t always<br />
to be the M7001 – initially it was the ‘M7’<br />
but it would appear that this is a model of<br />
BMW car so it was then changed to the<br />
M7001. This doesn’t actually change<br />
anything as the designation on the machine<br />
will show as M7131.<br />
No doubt everyone is aware that these<br />
tractors will be manufactured in the new<br />
factory currently being refurbished in<br />
Dunkirk, France. This factory will be the<br />
global manufacturing and distribution hub<br />
for the new tractors. However, not all the<br />
components will be manufactured in France<br />
– as an example the cab and engine will<br />
both be manufactured in Japan with the<br />
transmission being built in Germany.<br />
Many of the KUK staff have spent a<br />
considerable amount of time between KE<br />
(Kubota Europe) and KUK in terms of<br />
understanding the new product and<br />
working on various project teams in order to<br />
plan and execute the launch of the product.
This launch took place in September at<br />
EuroDisney, Paris. The launch was conducted<br />
over a number of days in order to focus on the<br />
different European Countries/languages. The<br />
launch for the UK dealers took place on 25th and<br />
26th September with a conference on the first<br />
day to introduce the product and its features etc.<br />
The second day focused on the<br />
demonstrations of the product using various<br />
different implements so that the dealers could<br />
see the tractor undertaking many different<br />
activities to enable them to really get a good<br />
‘feel’ for the product.<br />
The feedback from the dealers was very positive about the M7001 series with comments<br />
such as ‘can’t wait for it to arrive to be able to sell it’, ‘it is about time’, ‘excellent product’<br />
etc. Comments you would hope for when talking about a £70k+ product.<br />
So, when can we expect to see the tractor – we recently had one of the prototypes in the UK<br />
for a period of time undertaking ‘real work’ with a local farmer. This was to really get to<br />
understand the capabilities in practice rather than in set up situations. We also had it at the<br />
last employee meeting for all staff to be able to have a look around it.<br />
The first global and public showing of the<br />
M7001 will be at the Eima Show (Italy) in<br />
November 2014. The first product to be<br />
built in Dunkirk is expected to come off<br />
the<br />
production line in April 2015 but in limited<br />
numbers. We are hopeful that we will have<br />
three tractors to be on our stand at the<br />
Lamma show in January 2015<br />
In terms of our competition – due to<br />
the horsepower of this range of tractors<br />
we are now entering into a new market<br />
sector for Kubota, that of over 135 HP,<br />
heavy duty and true agricultural<br />
tractors. This sector is already well<br />
established with John Deere, Agco,<br />
CNH, SDF and Class being the main<br />
competitors. This is going to be a<br />
tough market to penetrate.
What have KUK already actioned in order to assist us with market penetration into<br />
this new area Some time ago we recruited an additional Dealer Manager and also<br />
a Product Manager for the Agri business to start to develop the relationships,<br />
market research etc ahead of the new product being launched. At this point the<br />
existing Dealer Managers were set the task of focusing on the groundcare range of<br />
products and we recruited a Product Manager for this range also. However, we<br />
have now also made the decision to split the division completely. This means that<br />
we will no longer have a T&GC Division headed by Adrian Langmead as the<br />
Business Development Manager (BDM) – T&GC but instead we will have a Business<br />
Development Manager – Agri and a Business Development Manager – Groundcare<br />
with the Dealer Managers/Product Managers/Demonstrators etc following their<br />
current product range. Therefore we will shortly be commencing the recruitment of<br />
one BDM – obviously Adrian will be in one of these positions.<br />
Many photographs were taken at<br />
the launch and we also have a<br />
short video of the M7001<br />
available on the intranet for<br />
everyone to see.<br />
And so the dream has turned into<br />
a reality and the next stage in the<br />
evolution of Kubota – we now just<br />
have to sell it!<br />
Written by Candice<br />
Dillingham from an<br />
interview with Adrian<br />
Langmead.
On the 8 th of June, a number of riders<br />
from all across the Kubota departments,<br />
took place in the Tour De Vale bike ride<br />
for charity. This event takes place every<br />
year with a record of 1837 riders taking<br />
part for 2014, raising money for British<br />
Sports in Wheelchairs.<br />
Kubota managed to raise over £1000<br />
towards this worthy event, with all riders<br />
completing the race and receiving a<br />
medal for the challenge…and later a<br />
beer in hand to finish the day off.<br />
A special thank you to all riders who<br />
completed either the 15, 35 or 55 miles<br />
contributing to a combined total of<br />
1025m! It was a great day out and we<br />
hope to compete in this event every<br />
year as a contribution to the community.<br />
Kubota Saddled up<br />
to complete the<br />
Tour De Vale 2014
On the 14th of June, Kubota UK limited<br />
combined their open morning with the local<br />
Thame Carnival that takes place every year,<br />
for the likes of the community to celebrate<br />
what the town has to offer.<br />
Free Bacon Rolls and refreshments were given<br />
out whilst the children enjoyed playing on the<br />
small pedal tractors and exploring the<br />
machines on display.<br />
On the morning of the event, Kubota had<br />
arranged a complimentary bus with a specific<br />
route, to allow people from the community to<br />
hop on and enjoy a visit to Kubota. With a<br />
giant archway of Digger arms, the public were<br />
invited by staff and management, to help the<br />
interested visitors view the display of Engines,<br />
Tractors, Groundcare and Construction<br />
machines available.<br />
Neil Winfield was especially great throughout<br />
the day, assisting with children having a go on<br />
the Digger, putting tennis balls in certain<br />
coloured buckets.<br />
Following the Kubota open morning, we<br />
participated in the carnival parade with<br />
Kubota custom floats made to suit world<br />
sports, as well as making an appearance down<br />
at the recreational site where the carnival was<br />
held.<br />
The day was a success and our overall aim was<br />
to show what we offer as a local business in<br />
Thame and hope to make an impact, so that<br />
every year is a challenge to be bigger and<br />
better than the last.
DRIV3R <strong>#2</strong>05<br />
JOSH HAMSTEAD<br />
Josh has started his long awaited<br />
racing within the Mini stox cars,<br />
following his Granddad George<br />
Hamstead, who raced for many years<br />
doing the F1 Stox Cars. He built many of<br />
his own cars and raced for many years<br />
with the race number 405. Later on his<br />
son Anthony longed to race but his dad<br />
said ‘no, too much money’ but Anthony<br />
was determined to race and he brought<br />
his first Rebels Stox Car back in 1996.<br />
He carried on to race for 17 years<br />
winning nearly every title and became<br />
the No1 car, taking the world champion<br />
title in 2001, then retired in 2013 to<br />
allow Son Josh to race and buy his first<br />
car.<br />
The drivers have to have their cars<br />
scrutineered every week before they race<br />
to make sure their cars are up to the rule<br />
book, that means their seat belts are fitted<br />
correctly and they must all have a licence<br />
for the track, you cannot just turn up and<br />
think it will pass, there are lots of rules to<br />
follow first. In terms of safety as like any<br />
sport it is dangerous and all health and<br />
safety rules must be followed even if you<br />
are just in the pits you must be aware of<br />
fast cars at all times.
Following in the family footsteps Joshua<br />
started racing at the age of 10 in 2013<br />
and now has been racing at Standlake<br />
arena Oxford for the last 18 months –<br />
doing OK.<br />
He has won a few trophies but actually<br />
managed to ‘rite off’ his first Mini which<br />
resulted in a visit to the hospital and<br />
has also caught his dad on fire twice!!!!<br />
But a new mini was bought and all is<br />
going well. The first year Josh did have<br />
to have a passenger to sit next to him<br />
while leaning to drive at Standlake -<br />
Aaron Hamstead his cousin, and also<br />
good friend Gary Jacobs, who are both<br />
race drivers themselves. I think Josh<br />
has given them both a scare from time<br />
to time !!! Joshua also race’s with the<br />
number 405 after his granddad. This<br />
type of racing is a non-contact sport so<br />
it’s all about good driving skills and<br />
speed.<br />
Josh has now also got himself an ORC<br />
Mini Stox which he races at<br />
Hednesford, Birmingham, Aldershot,<br />
Northampton and many more places.<br />
Unlike the other racing this formula is a<br />
contact sport and therefore a lot more<br />
aggressive, but Josh is doing well and<br />
already has a few trophies much to his<br />
delight, especially as he drives on his<br />
own in this category.<br />
Joshua is very competitive and likes to<br />
do well - things don’t always go to plan<br />
but as all the drivers will tell you that’s<br />
racing. Joshua really enjoys the<br />
challenges of this category driving with<br />
number 205.<br />
It takes a lot of hard work to keep the cars<br />
up to scratch for the next meeting, always<br />
needing to check the engine, wheels etc..<br />
Joshua’s job is to keep it clean and painted<br />
and looking good for each meeting.<br />
There is a point chart at each meeting for<br />
the top ten, in much the same way as<br />
Formula 1. Obviously Joshua’s dream is to<br />
be the champion.<br />
The meeting’s take place at the weekends<br />
and most bank holidays - you can look<br />
this up on the web site of Standlake Arena<br />
and also on the Rebel racing web site<br />
under links that will show you all the ORC<br />
Mini dates and venues.<br />
So it would be great to see anyone there,<br />
Josh loves his racing and hopes to<br />
continue for many years he has now given<br />
up his football as he doesn’t have the time<br />
to concentrate on both - racing is very<br />
tiring after a meeting and school work also<br />
has to come first.<br />
So one day he might be the next Lewis<br />
Hamilton who knows
A big thank you to<br />
all the parents and<br />
children that<br />
attended the<br />
Children’s Xmas<br />
Party. We all had a<br />
wonderful day and<br />
hope the kids loved<br />
their presents from<br />
Santa (AKA Steve P)<br />
Dave C-Champion of Aunt Sally 2014
Liz Law: “I stayed in the Pilgrim Hotel<br />
halfway between Ross on Wye and<br />
Hereford and cycled a circular 55 miles<br />
to Chepstow, returning via the Forest of<br />
Dean and had a few drinks in the bar<br />
afterwards to assist recovery. The<br />
Kubota cycle shirts were worn by both<br />
Tony and myself<br />
Debbie enjoyed<br />
a Jazz River<br />
Cruise with her<br />
family down<br />
the Thames<br />
We used our voucher for<br />
a Pizza restaurant in<br />
London called "Fire and<br />
stone“<br />
Our voucher covered<br />
myself, Dawn, Dawns<br />
Mum and Dad for a<br />
starter, main and a<br />
bottle of wine.<br />
We also took some friends<br />
and made a night of it.<br />
Food was great and I<br />
would recommend this<br />
as a voucher option to<br />
anyone!<br />
Elaine also<br />
stayed in the<br />
same hotel as<br />
Liz and had a<br />
two day break<br />
visiting the<br />
Forest of Dean<br />
Gareth Collins<br />
What did you use your 35 year<br />
experience voucher for
View from the<br />
Bridge<br />
2014 has been a great year for KUK – Not only did we celebrate the milestone of 35 years<br />
serving the UK and Irish markets, we achieved record results, Launched several new product<br />
lines, expanded and enhanced our facilities, increased our headcount by another 6%, to<br />
mention just a few key points.<br />
So let’s take a look at some of the above in more detail.<br />
Results<br />
Although there are still a few trading<br />
days of December, our results to this<br />
point show that we have achieved a<br />
turnover in excess of £190m against<br />
our plan of £189m (our previous year<br />
was £149m). This 25% in growth<br />
overall has mainly been driven by the<br />
Construction and Engine products<br />
which sold in excess of our plan.<br />
However Tractor & Groundcare and<br />
Parts are both very close to their plans<br />
and showed good growth over the<br />
previous year<br />
Tractor & Groundcare<br />
Overall, KUK achieved retail sales ahead of our plan, and we grew sales by 15%<br />
compared to the previous year. This is all the more impressive when you consider<br />
that the tractor market was quite weak, which resulted in an increase in our market<br />
share. Ride on mower sales were very strong due to an extended season and<br />
improving market. RTV sales were hampered by the later than scheduled arrival of<br />
the new RTV X900’s.<br />
Wholesale deliveries will be just shy of the plan, but 14% higher than 2013.<br />
Tractor & Groundcare products delivered a turnover of £49m against a plan of<br />
£48.5m, which compares to £43m in 2013.
Construction<br />
Sales of Mini excavators were outstanding in 2014 thanks to the<br />
economic recovery improving market confidence. Plant hirers really<br />
appreciate the quality, reliability and residual value of our machines,<br />
and this year saw significant gains in the 5 – 8 ton sectors with U48,<br />
KX057 and KX080-4 seeing strong demand. We also introduced the<br />
U27 in April which went down really well in the market.<br />
Engines<br />
The sales delivered a turnover of £91.4m against a plan of £91.2m,<br />
which compares to £62.4m in 2013.<br />
Engines has also had a fantastic year driven by market<br />
improvements stimulating demand for construction<br />
machines in North America and the UK.<br />
Unit sales are 20,939 against a plan of 18,890, which<br />
also compares to 18,178 engines in 2013.<br />
These unit sales equate to £37.7m against a budget of<br />
£37.6m compared to £32.8m in 2013<br />
Parts<br />
Service<br />
Parts sales increased in 2014, due to the<br />
introduction of new initiatives such as the<br />
lower cost rubber tracks for excavators and<br />
aggressive pricing strategies on our<br />
excavator under carriage parts. We also held<br />
sales campaigns to encourage dealers to<br />
carry higher levels of parts stock which<br />
boosted the volume of parts. The new terms<br />
and conditions that were implemented in<br />
January 2014 certainly help boost sales as<br />
well.<br />
New Products<br />
As you all know, we opened the new<br />
wing of the service training facility<br />
to allow consecutive training courses<br />
to be held to keep up with growing<br />
demand in this key service. We also<br />
introduced Kubota care at the<br />
beginning of the year which is now<br />
starting to take off really well and<br />
help boost sales in the Agricultural<br />
range of tractors.<br />
During 2014 we saw a number of new products launched to our dealers and end user customers, including<br />
the F90 commercial ride on mowers, the B50 range of compact tractors, the U27-4 mini excavator, the<br />
new RTV X900, the new STW compact tractors and our line up of spark ignition engines was enhanced.<br />
Overall, over 20 new models were introduced which are now helping us to maintain our position as<br />
market leaders.<br />
I would like to thank everyone again for all their hard work and effort that they give every day, which<br />
contributes heavily to the success of KUK, and ensures that we can strengthen the business even further.<br />
Please keep up the good work for 2015 and beyond!<br />
In the meantime, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and Happy New year to you and your families.
Ben Rose will be<br />
transferring into the<br />
role of Process<br />
Controller working in<br />
the Business Solutions<br />
& Planning<br />
Department with<br />
effect from 5th<br />
January 2015<br />
- Brian Ward has been promoted to the role of Assembly Manager with his<br />
reporting line changing from Supply Chain to R & D. Hence he and his<br />
Assembly team will report to Stuart McClimont from 1st January 2015.<br />
- Robert Hickman will be transferring into the Business Solutions and<br />
Planning Manager in the new role of IT Support Technician.<br />
- We have Leana Horton joining us on 5th January 2015 as National Account<br />
Manager in Construction.<br />
- In addition Kerry Higby and Elaine Bennett are also joining us on 5 th January<br />
2015 as Sales Administrators working within the SCM function.
Paul Jacobs stock<br />
car<br />
This edition we are featuring Paul<br />
Jacobs’ hobby. The reason we have<br />
chosen Paul is due to the fact that for<br />
his long service award from Kubota he<br />
choose new tyres for his Formula 2<br />
Stock Car.<br />
So I caught up with Paul to get a<br />
better understanding of this hobby and<br />
what it entails, other than expensive<br />
tyres!<br />
Many years ago Paul used to do Stock<br />
Car racing. In fact he started when he<br />
was 15 with banger racing and gradually<br />
progressed. However as with many other<br />
people, a wife (Eleanor) and children<br />
came along and he neither had the time<br />
nor resources to be able to continue at<br />
that stage.<br />
However, four years ago conditions were<br />
right for him to be able to return to one<br />
of his passions.<br />
The entire Jacobs family are involved in<br />
the Formula 2 Stock Car racing theme.<br />
Paul along with both his sons – Ricky and<br />
Gary now do the racing each having their<br />
own cars. This is very much a family<br />
‘thing’. The wives and children all support<br />
the hobby, go along to the racing and are<br />
generally racing‘groupies’ - Even little<br />
Kayden is involved, Paul’s grandson (2<br />
years old).<br />
This is part of what motivates Paul to<br />
continue. They are a bit like the three<br />
musketeers’ – ‘All for one and one for all’<br />
as they only race if all three can attend.<br />
They work on their own cars but then<br />
help each other, go to the events<br />
together with the truck they have<br />
purchased to take the cars to the events<br />
etc – a real family affair.<br />
Paul, Ricky and Gary mainly race at Standlake,<br />
near Whitney, but have been known to put in<br />
a few laps at Grimly (Midlands) and Ringwood<br />
(New Forest area), this year undertaking 11<br />
meetings with each meeting having three<br />
races, across a season from March to<br />
November, with the cost of the car,<br />
maintenance, fuel, entrance fees etc it is not<br />
an inexpensive hobby.<br />
The cars are purpose built using a box-section<br />
chassis, 2 litre Ford pinto engine (highly<br />
tuned) ford escort axle casing, the rest is<br />
home built as there is a detailed specification<br />
which each driver has to have with their cars.<br />
(Although they are not allowed on the road.)<br />
This means that they are very even in<br />
competition so it is things like the set up etc<br />
of the car which can then differentiate it to be<br />
able to a be a winner – as Paul was in 2013,<br />
when he was the SA points Champion. He<br />
narrowly missed retaining the Championship<br />
this year by a mere five points. All I would say<br />
is watch out next season as he is coming back<br />
fighting!
In terms of Gary and Ricky – well Gary came third in the<br />
Championship in 2012 and Ricky is improving all the<br />
time. Paul is currently building a miniature of Gary’s car<br />
for Kayden which is using a mobility scooter motor –<br />
obviously he will be one to watch for the future!<br />
In terms of the racing the winner in each heat receives a trophy and then<br />
in the final the top three are each awarded a trophy. A relative new<br />
arrival in the Formula 2 Stock Car racing is the dawn of the Grand<br />
National. This consists of 20-25 laps of the oval circuit with the winner<br />
starting the finals a lap down.<br />
In the 2012 season Paul started the lap down and managed to get to third position which<br />
was a record for Standlake. This year he had got to fifth but then, unfortunately the race<br />
was ‘red<br />
flagged’ or he would have won.<br />
In terms of the standard racing there are four levels or ‘tops’ as they are known – White<br />
tops are the beginners and start the races on the actual start line. Then there are the<br />
Yellow tops who are more experienced and start ¼ lap behind, followed ¼ lap behind<br />
that by the Blue tops and then finally the<br />
Red tops who start ¾ lap back from the start line. This really gives the less experienced<br />
drivers the<br />
chance to race. Paul, Gary and Ricky are now all Red tops. One of Paul’s proudest<br />
moments was the first time both of his boys started their first race as he could see them<br />
on the start line where he was further back and watch them start the race – ‘there my<br />
boys’.<br />
So what is there for the future for Paul and his family in terms of racing - basically more<br />
of the same.<br />
Paul has made the decision to continue racing for as long as his boys wish to continue.<br />
All of cause<br />
would love to progress to the next stage ie Brisca (which is the recognised body) or<br />
Brisca F1, but at present are happy doing what they do – especially when you consider<br />
that the third generation of<br />
Jacobs are about to take to the tracks (albeit on a mobility scooter base and only 2 years<br />
old!). Paul<br />
says it is like an addition – very intense.<br />
Keep up the<br />
good work you<br />
Jacobs’ – we<br />
want to see<br />
more trophies.