For decades, landscapers and commercial grass cutters have known about the speed and power of Dixie Chopper lawnmowers. Since 1980, the Coatesville, Ind.-based company has been building mowers that can take down even the toughest lawns at a rate of nearly nine acres per hour.
“With the Dixie Chopper, there’s a mystique to it that is in some ways similar to the mystique around Harley Davidson motorcycles,” said Gary A. Morgan, president and CEO. Over the past several years, the mystique of what he calls “the world’s fastest lawnmower” has extended from professional cutters to individual homeowners.
Dixie Chopper recently rolled out the Iron Eagle, its first true residential lawnmower. Although the Iron Eagle costs more than most residential mowers, Morgan said the machine offers the kinds of advantages that “disposable lawnmowers,” as he calls them, can’t.
“When we talked to our dealers, we discovered that the larger homeowners, the ones with five- or six-acre yards, were excellent candidates for our lawnmowers,” Morgan said. “We have stories from customers who were spending eight hours mowing their lawns with their old machines and who are now mowing their lawns in two or three hours.”
 As is the case with the commercial cutters, Morgan said the Iron Eagle customers are extremely impressed by the increased productivity of the Dixie Chopper machines. “Historically, the majority of our customers have been commercial cutters, but we’ve seen more residential customers coming our way,” he said. “Our percentage of [customers who are] residential homeowners is increasing every year.”
A commitment to quality
As Dixie Chopper prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2010, Morgan said the Coatesville, Ind.-based company continues to make the best machines possible and honors founder Art Evans’ original goals. “When Art founded the company in 1980, he had two distinct goals in mind,” he said. “He wanted to build a lawnmower that wouldn’t break when you use it, and he wanted to build a machine with a timeless value that would provide years of productivity. There are a lot of Dixie Choppers from the ’80s that are still running; still mowing grass.”
Although that kind of success could make it easy for the company to rest on its laurels, Dixie Chopper remains on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to building machines and exploring new fuel sources. When Morgan took over as president of the company in September 2008, it allowed Evans to focus on research and development full-time.
“We’re always looking at ways to improve our machines and at the energy technology for powering them,” said Morgan. “We were the first in the industry to introduce a true liquid-propane burning lawnmower, and in April, we introduced the world’s first natural gas lawnmower.”
The propane and natural gas powered lawnmowers are better for the environment because traditional gasoline-powered lawnmowers can pollute the atmosphere, he said. Morgan also noted that, within the US, there is an abundance of natural gas sources.
“When people are fueling their lawnmowers, there is a tendency to spill fuel, and gas left in gas cans also tends to evaporate,” Morgan said. “With propane and natural gas, you don’t have the problems with spillage or evaporation because there is no leakage.”
Vendor loyalty
The company gets the same kind of loyalty from vendors as it gets from its customers. For the Dixie Chopper sales force, the focus is not as much on selling the lawnmowers as it is in providing the dealerships with the information they need to effectively market and sell the machines.
“The salespeople are there to show the dealer what the value is and what the features are,” Morgan said. “The dealer is the one who is going to go out and actually sell the lawnmower.”
He said the dealers appreciate that the Dixie sales force gets down to basics and provide the tools the dealers need to succeed. “I’m always telling my salespeople that if you don’t have a reason to go to a dealer, then don’t just show up to discuss the weather or sports,” Morgan said. “The dealers have more important things to do with their time.”
When it comes to hiring new employees, especially those who are in contact with the dealerships, Morgan said the company prefers to employ people who are prompt, courteous, and able to demonstrate the value of the products. In addition to managing relations with existing vendors, he said it’s important for the salespeople to scout out relationships with potential new dealers.
“Our dealerships cover the US, but we’re not covering it as well as we should,” said Morgan. “Our coverage west of Kansas is not as strong as we would like it to be, so we’re working on improving that.”
The company’s dealership coverage strategy is to not have any markets oversaturated, but to have the dealerships a reasonable distance from as many potential customers as possible. “My philosophy is that a customer is probably not willing to drive more than a half hour to buy a lawnmower, so we try to have our dealers within 30 minutes of where our customers are,” Morgan said.
Dixie Chopper’s primary marketing strategy relies heavily on good word of mouth and having accessible dealerships. “It’s our job to build a good machine so that all our customers are talking about it,” he said.
Looking ahead
As Dixie Chopper looks to expand its market and make a greater impact with residential customers, Morgan said the company isn’t going to forget about the customers that got it where it is today. “Although we’re going to be looking at growing the residential side of our business, we’re certainly not going to abandon the commercial side of our business. That’s our strength,” he said.
“Commercial cutters are our market,” Morgan said. “They love our mowers because of the increased productivity, and in their business, increased productivity means increased profitability.” |
