The grass is greener at Greenwood

Greenwood Landscape Management’s Regional Director, Mark Kemen, describes the typical workday at the Queensland company as “sunup to sundown”.

Beginning at their Sunshine Coast office before the sun rises, Mark and his team are briefed on the projects for the day, then load up their new Isuzu NPR 45-155 Tipper and head out to tackle their jobs.

As commercial landscapers, Greenwood does upper-market residential projects, as well as anything else you see in outdoor public areas – everything from laying turf to building boat ramps, beach accesses, barbecue huts, footpaths and playgrounds.

Greenwood’s story didn’t begin on the Sunshine Coast, but further south, along the Gold Coast. The business was founded in 2005 by Paul Green and Alan Woodger, with their one truck and their first employee, Mark Kemen.

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As Greenwood grew larger, having expanded from the Gold Coast and establishing also in Sunshine Coast, Mark and his team became a staple in the Sunshine Coast community, growing to employ 16 staff members and possessing an inventory of two Isuzu NPR 45-155 Tippers, five utes and a 1.8-tonne excavator.

With the variety of work they do, especially in the communities for the local councils, Greenwood needed a versatile truck.

“We needed something that didn’t need a medium rigid or heavy rigid licence but could still carry a decent load, as well as the excavator, around with no dramas,” Mark explained.

Enter Isuzu’s NPR 45-155, ticking off Mark’s criteria checklist with the ability to be driven on a car licence, and all with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) of 4500kg and a gross combination mass (GCM) of 8000kg.

On top of the NPR’s GVM and GCM ratings, the truck has claimed power of 114kW at 2600rpm and torque of 419Nm at 1600 to 2600rpm – making light work of transporting the excavator to and fro.

“At Sunshine Coast, we often had to float the 1.8-tonne excavator around on trailers behind the utes or even tilt trays, and the Gold Coast crew would do the same with their bobcat, and then we’d have to leave them at job sites, which was a pain.”

So after doing some research and getting feedback from different people, Mark jumped at the suggestion of an Isuzu NPR 45-155 Tipper.

“The first Isuzu NPR for the Gold Coast crew was bought in June 2018 from Warren Clark down at Gold Coast Isuzu,” Mark said.

“Then I pushed for a second Isuzu for us on the Sunshine Coast and got the all clear, so we bought that from David Alberg from Madill Isuzu.

“I like to keep our expenditure to the Sunshine Coast and support local businesses, and there was no point buying a truck elsewhere and then having to transport it to Sunshine Coast,” Mark said.

And it’s Greenwood’s commitment to giving back into the community that has made them a staple of the local community.

“We sponsor a number of programs, events and organisations around the area and a few on our team help out with the rural fire service as well… we’ve always prided ourselves on supporting the community,” Mark said.

“Isuzu gives you a truck anyone can drive on a car licence, they’re big and comfortable; we can fit three guys in them, load them to the hilt and we can never seem to overload them.

“The NPR has a big engine as well; it almost feels like it’s got the displacement of a V8 and pulls like a freight train.”

The benefits of Greenwood’s NPR came in all different shapes and sizes, one of them being the ability to cut out unnecessary delivery costs, making the jobs cheaper for Greenwood and their clients.

Mark explained: “We’re saving on delivery costs as well, every now and then we need a couple metres of material to finish a job, so instead of paying for delivery we can get it ourselves.

Mark found even greater economic benefits in their Isuzu, as they found their NPRs have greater whole-of-life cost savings compared to other work vehicles.

Mark laughed and added: “I’m working on upgrading the utes to Isuzus.”