OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield Products Pty Ltd Ceases Business

Hi all,
New member here. I don't think anyone has posted about this here yet, so I may be the first to break this news to some people:

Greenfield Mowers has gone out of business (reference).
They have granted the manufacturing license for their products to Cox Industries.
Spare parts will apparently remain available through a "combined" Greenfield and Cox spare parts catalog, although I'm not sure what this means for availability of older spare parts for previous generations of equipment. I also have no idea what it means for their new products in the future, but the spare parts side of it is far more relevant to this forum.

Anyway, a bit about myself as this is only my second post. I live in New Zealand and do mowing, maintenance and repair on two Greenfield ride on mowers, a 2003 Evolution III 13-32 and a 2009 Evolution Fastcut 19.5-34 (several dealers used to sell them here in NZ too). I've found the wealth of information on the OutdoorKing forums very useful over the last couple of years in doing various maintenance tasks on the aforementioned Greenfields for the first time, and have wanted to post something for a while but just haven't had the reason to until now.

So I thought I'd start a thread here in the Greenfield ride on questions forum (hope that is OK) to let people know if they haven't found out already, and for anyone interested to discuss Greenfield going out of business, and what it may mean for those of us who own and use old Greenfield products and to some degree rely on spare parts being available, etc. If anyone knows anything at all about this (i.e. more details) other than what is readily available on the Greenfield and Cox websites and their YouTube channel (link) I would be interested to know and am sure others would be too.

Regards,
Rupert

Hi Rupert

Well,I'm in shock.
Many thanks for being the harbinger of this news.

I see Greenfield ceased operation in June, 2018.

I feel a few dedicated members will be shocked by this too.

I do not think Greenfield ended due to lack of sales.
Being a family company, I guess it ran its natural course.

I hope Cox retains and develops Greenfield designs, and brands future
Greenfields deserving of the high quality that made Greenfield famous.

Nothing gold can stay.

------------------------------
Jack

Morning,

I'd not heard about this!

Very sad news indeed.

another aussie company that has "rode on ahead" all the best to Lewis

A quick look at the asic website suggests they were wound up by one of their suppliers?

Here is the information on Cox and greenfield which is in print of the Power Equipment Mag.

Something I always expected, no matter how efficient you, can't manufacture a product like this in Aus and remain competitive with imported products. This situation was obvious to everybody back in the 70/80's when the "Button Plan" was introduced and the slow demise of manufacturing began

Yes guys this is rather old news and I'm somewhat surprised that no one on the Greenfield side of this esteemed forum had written about it.

I did speak to another member of ODK when it actually happened and still nothing was written about it.

I always found it rather strange that Lewis Rinehold became a member here and was online on a daily basis communicating with members and then just out of the blue disappeared as quickly as he originally appeared in the first instance.

Anyway this is just another fine example of how this country is going down the chute. How we can just survive on Retail and Hospitality is beyond me as making or building something is the backbone of any strong economy, just ask China. Enough said.

Does this mean my Anniversary model has now gone up in value

Thank you Bruce for the information from the Power Equipment Mag, I had not seen that. I now realize it was (maybe) more of a strategic move between both companies rather than Greenfield simply going out of business.

Yeah I realize this is old news but since no one had posted I thought I would be the first. It seemed very relevant to this forum. I only found out about it after chancing across their dealer update video on YouTube.

Hi Norm,

Has it got a V8 in it or just an Ecotech ?

G'day Bruce and Greenies

Bruce, many thanks for the information from me too.
That's a nice thought GML. Best to Lewis from me too.

RLP, I feel this is a strategic move, but Cox now own Greenfield licence rights.
Cox appear to have chosen - at this time - to continue a joint branding association.

Thanks to PRD for the ASIC research.
I feel this is a case of reading between the lines as to causes and effects.

I wonder what the long-term future of Greenfield designs will be.
The Cox website certainly points to their view on how ride-ons are
evolving away from the old friction drives. Live Drive is really the
only connection with the deceased Owen Cox company.

I wouldn't say this was 'rather old news' at all.
This story is fresh and has plenty yet to tell.

Greenfield is dead, long live Greenfield.

Cheers
---------------------------
Jack

Nothing special about my Greenie here, it has a Briggs in it with a hole in the side, but it is complete so just needs another motor in it, and even though I have a V8 sitting in the garage, I'm not sure that is an option at the moment.

Yep, and sadly it looks like they had been in serious financial strife from early this year at least, including being evicted from their rented factory premises.

To the point that the liquidator regards the transfer of Greenfield's records/assets to Cox Industries as of doubtful legitimacy, and has taken Federal Court action to recover them...
http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2018/2018fca1252

Very sad indeed, that an iconic Aussie mower manufacturer should come to such a messy demise.

The 302 V8 in my 92 Fairlane will probably outlast the body. I might work on sticking on a VC auto drive if the gearbox can take the torque.
I somehow saw the writing on the wall with Greenfield. Weird this anachonism was producing push mowers while know one knew about them!

I scored my first Greenfield push mower a couple of weeks ago, I might just hang onto it for sentimental reasons. Sadly it doesn't run.

CyberJack, I too now wonder about the long-term future of Greenfield designs.

COX have already announced a new low end "hydro Fastcut" (a regular Greenfield tractor but with a hydrostatic transmission). It must be to address their need to produce cheaper, more disposable products to compete with the imported brands. Ironically, the hydrostatic transmissions are probably imported.

I have to applaud Greenfield for sticking to their design and its quality right to the end. I guess the difference with COX is that they are adapting, and that allows them to survive, but at the same time will inevitably reduce quality.

Watch the value of Greenfields rise over time.
Perhaps CyberJack should sit on his now and use an old beater to cut the grass with.

Morning All,

Thanks for the link Gadge. I'd not seen that.

Messy for sure.

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/yata..._medium=social&utm_source=ios_social

Tripped on this just now. The only thing greenfield is the name! What is it? Just a re-badged Cox?

V disappointed!

What were you expecting prd that is the way of the world,the Commodore is just a rebadged Opal

I heard this was coming, but i wasnt expecting such.... Rubbish?
I believe its actually a direct copy of the 20+ year old rover ranger, Never thought I'd see Greenfield copy Rover...

And boy is the front end on the new fastcut woeful. Is that really the best they could come up with? the fastcut was a tough looking mower, am also curious as to how they have "improved" the friction drive....

Gday Nath,

Just been doing a bit of quick reading. The improvement might be referring to them no longer needing shims to stack out the play. Depending on what they’ve done this might be a good idea?

I was wondering if the 10xl might be more inspired by greenfields own 5xls from the ‘80s? Either way, it’s significant to note that this design was a epic fail back then. They say this one is made in China (and in fact the fastcuts have an option for a Chinese engine too). The same Henderson’s mowers site says straight out the steering is rubbish on the xl! Love the honesty!

Clearly the old business model that the old Greenfield company had was no longer working. Something had to change to reflect modern consumers and the modern manufacturing world.

That said, I hope they know what they’re doing......

Cheers,

Hi prd, is there any reason the 5xl was an epic failure, I didn't think they were that bad for a small rider, cutting deck height adjustment was a bit average. The Stalion with its gearbox and no brakes to me was more of a problematic machine. I have rebuilt both and to me the gearbox was of more concern. The Stalion cutter deck height adjuster was the better design

The more i look at that 10xl, the more i see it it an exact copy of the ranger, the deck shell, the deck hangers and tension springs, brake lever, park lock, engagement lever, height control, throttle and key location. Also the steering on the ranger was the worst I've ever seen.

If they were going to copy something, it could have been the amc explorer, much better design than the tragic rover.

I get that business model wasn't working, and that their product was too expensive. $6000+ and you're only getting a 34", later 42". Its just a shame they cant just let the product die. I hate it when they just slap a sticker on something like this and say it has the same quality and pedigree, it jyst doesnt. Much like rover, nothing about that brand is even remotely Australian anymore.

Nath, typical of any take over, it isn't going to trash the Cox name so why should they worry, the list of well known brand names are taken over and the the bean counters just look solely at how they can downgrade the quality while cashing in on the name in the short term then the product often just fades into oblivion. I'm sure Cox will recoup any money they put up in the liquidation of Greenfield with plenty to spare and they then have reduced competition from a local supplier

Morning all,

Whilst not "new news" today it is most definitely still hard to read. It also make some sense of why Lewis was very active at one point then no longer even logging in.

I would suspect he had quite a bit on the past year or so, especially reading some of the documents, which, Im no lawyer, but to me read very uneasy....And I'm just a consumer.

Almost makes me just want to cover up my Greenfield gear and leave them as they are.

Ive only been here for 5 mins compared to some, but i do wish Lewis all the best and i hope this is cleared up as quick as possible for his and his family's sake.

And fwiw, that Fastcut Hydro looks terrible. It looks like something we will see Bunnings selling in the near future.

Again, just my uneducated opinion.

G'day folks,

I don't have any updates on the Greenfield litigation, but I can now report that Lewis has returned to an old field of endeavour of his.

He was the Australian distributor [trading as Beeman Australia] for some high-end makes of air rifles [Beeman, Feinwerkbau and Theoben at least, and associated specialities] for some years, and operated [as a licensed QLD firearm dealer - yes, air arms are classified as 'firearms' in Oz], from one of the older Greenfield premises, up to 2009.

He also offered parts and upgrade kits for those and other brands; and a very highly regarded air arm servicing facility, which was a great loss when it closed.

A company relocation [and associated hassles wrt approvals as a firearm dealer premises], and changes of ownership of the Beeman brand, caused him to exit this field at that time.

He is now running air rifle sales and service at Queensland Gun Exchange, and often posts on a couple of Oz hunting/shooting forums I frequent - and the 'tone' of his posts is very cheery and enthusiastic.

Regardless the circumstances, that is great to hear.

Thats pretty cool to hear, I guess it would probably be a bit of a sore point still and likely a huge weight lifted off, but it would be so awesome to get a bit more history out of him, so much of the aussie history is lost when no one writes it down!