Orbit praises Pellenc’s green credentials

Orbit, one of the UK’s leading housing providers, has invested in a large fleet of battery powered Pellenc equipment to meet its low noise and carbon emissions requirements.

Orbit is one of the largest housing groups in the country with a growing property portfolio of over 45,000 homes spanning the Midlands, east and south. Green objectives are at the forefront of its agenda; from construction to day to day operational management of its properties, efficient use of resources is a key consideration.

Through its Orbit Earth initiative, the company aims to take responsibility for its impact on the environment, take action to reduce this impact and embed more sustainable practices throughout the business.

Rhys Warwick, an Estates Team Manager for Orbit, was asked to investigate the procurement of new machinery to complement its Orbit Earth initiative. He started researching battery powered groundscare equipment which would be able to withstand the heavy demands of commercial use and quickly found that it was a limited market – until he discovered Pellenc.

“I was looking specifically at commercially viable equipment rather than domestic tools and found that actually the market was very limited,” he said. “We looked at a lot of manufacturers and the equipment was extremely limited in terms of the running times and the warranty we’d like from commercial equipment.”

“Fortunately, we came across Pellenc at SALTEX 2019 and were really impressed at the design, the running times and pretty much everything about that equipment. It was probably one of the only brands we had seen that was really and truly commercially viable with the running times you would need to have a good full day’s work in grounds maintenance.”

A forerunner when it comes to lithium-ion technology, Pellenc has established itself as the number one choice in the ‘zero emission’ professional power tools market for the maintenance of urban and green-spaces.

Light, odourless, noise-free, with no starting problems and enough power to enable professional users to work for a full day on a single charge, it’s no wonder more and more professional users are turning to Pellenc. It is an attractive alternative to those who have, for several years, been relying on fuel-based machinery.

Not only will users see a huge amount of savings by eliminating the necessity of purchasing fuel but by using the Pellenc equipment, they will be contributing to protecting the environment by reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and noise pollution.
After seeing the Pellenc equipment at SALTEX 2019, a demonstration day was organised, and Orbit ordered a fleet consisting of Rasion Easy mowers, City Cut brushcutters, Excelion strimmers, Selion chainsaws, Arion blowers and the powerful ULiB 1500 batteries. Over a three-year period, the equipment will continue to be incorporated into Orbit’s operations – as Rhys explains.

“I would say that in three years’ time, 95% of our groundscare equipment will be electric, and all of that will be exclusively Pellenc.

“One of the main factors behind choosing the Pellenc equipment was from a health and safety point of view – in terms of the low vibrations, the noise reduction, more savings in fuel and less Co2. There are so many benefits for the user but also for the public. We operate in residential areas and our independent living sites have an elderly population – so in these areas the low noise levels and the minimal disturbance will be beneficial.

“Our operatives have been extremely impressed with the running time of the 1500 battery. They have commented on being able to get round several sites, sometimes not needing a charge for two days. The batteries also hold their charge between use as well.”

Pellenc UK recently announced the launch of an industry leading four-year commercial warranty for all batteries and three-year warranty for all tools – something which further impressed Rhys.

“It shows us that they have great confidence in their equipment, and it gives us confidence too,” he said. “They wouldn’t provide such a good length of warranty on something they didn’t think could withstand the rigours of commercial use. It certainly gave us peace of mind.
“Ultimately, Pellenc equipment has the commercial bite needed to meet our environmental aspirations.”

The complete range of Pellenc equipment purchase by Orbit was supplied by official dealer RT Machinery and area sales manager Scott Reynolds.

Pellenc products are exclusively distributed in the UK by Etesia UK.