Hear from director René Grimaud about his company and the trends he’s seeing in his region.
René Grimaud, Les Jardins d’Autises
Owner/manager René Grimaud founded Les Jardins d’Autises in Maillezais, France, in 2007. The company serves residential and municipality customers, with about 60 percent of the business focused on landscape creation and the remainder made up of lawn services for residential customers (30 percent) and municipalities or private customers (10 percent).
Grimaud and his team offer lawn care, trimming and tree care/surgeon services, as well as outdoor landscape creation, irrigation system installation, outdoor lighting, and the creation of driveways, ponds, fences, patio areas and other landscape features.
About eight years ago, the local Toro sales representative contacted Grimaud, and Les Jardins d’Autises has been a Toro customer since then. The company currently has one Groundsmaster® 360 mower, one Dingo® TX 1000, one Dingo TX 525, several 53-cm heavy duty commercial walk-behind mowers and a Z Master® 593-D diesel mower.
With 22 years of landscaping industry experience, Grimaud has seen his share of equipment, and he has reasons for choosing Toro. “The durability of the equipment and the productivity — thanks to the maneuverability of the machines — are what I like most,” explains Grimaud. “And with the recycling technology, there are no clippings to dispose of. I also like the versatility of the Dingo, and the ease of use and comfort for the operators.” See the many ways they use Dingo utility loaders.
Grimaud recently had a large fence job that needed to be completed in a tight timeframe for a professional customer. “The Dingo made a huge difference in terms of productivity ,” he recalls. “It gave us the ability to transport materials, mix concrete, dig holes with the auger and more — all with the same machine.”