Green is the colour of passion for Chop-em Tree Fellers in Benoni who recently purchased an all-new Sumitomo excavator from its supplier and promptly had it painted in a distinctive bright green coat of paint.
Rather than the ordinary yellow paint scheme of most other excavators, owner, David Kretzschmar, wants his equipment to be easily recognisable in the field as belonging to the company and being a specialist arborist machine or, in other words, a tree fellers’ dream machine.
Having grown up in a tree felling and bush clearing family, David’s first recollections are of riding and sleeping in various types of plant equipment and trucks while his father and other family members went about their business. As a result, there is little that he does not know about plant equipment and along with his brothers Malcolm and Karl, can operate any type of machine with their eyes closed.
Green machine
According to David it is also the reason why he chose a Sumitomo excavator from one of the country’s largest equipment suppliers, ELB Equipment. “We know how important it is to have equipment that won’t let you down when you in the field and far from home. Just like the other Sumitomo we have been operating for over four years has gone about its work effortlessly and reliably, we expect the latest Sumitomo SH210-6 will be similarly tough and reliable in decades to come.
“What’s more, ELB Equipment will be there right beside us – just like they always have been with the other machine and through the process of buying our new machine – from planning to procurement, finance and delivery. These guys deal with us at our level and provide us with the kind of service we want and need, where nothing is too much trouble and we are not just seen as a number.
“Even our enquiry about changing the colour to our bright green choice was met with enthusiasm and a can-do spirit, nothing is too much effort. This was particularly special on the day of the delivery of our big green machine that had the whole family, our flatbed truck driver and all our staff present at the event bursting with pride. From our dreams to reality, the excavator shares its name ‘Fifi’ with the youngest member of our family, Malcolm’s baby daughter Phoebe or Fifi as she is known.”
Love trees
ELB Equipment’s Keon Kardolus, acknowledges the superb efforts of the team involved in painting and delivering what is probably the country’s most distinctive tree felling excavator. It was a real team effort from our sales and technical department to the painters who got every little detail correct. Even the model excavator that was delivered with the machine which was painted in exactly the same colour scheme and accurate to the last millimetre.
“Of all the superlatives we could think of like the country’s tree fellers being ‘green with envy’ or ‘the most economical and greenest excavator in the country’, the only one we can be sure of is that the Kretzschmar brothers are passionate about trees, passionate arborists and are passionate about equipment. What better way to express the love of all those passions than to choose green for the colour of their latest machine and as their recently adopted company colour.”
He adds that the Sumitomo SH210-6 is one of the country’s most popular excavators due to its legendary Japanese reliability, award winning fuel consumption, easy maintenance and access to accessories and after sales services through ELB Equipment. They are most popular in mining and construction, as well as forestry and bush clearing where they either use their bulk to push trees over or excavate them with their roots and all depending on the needs of the property owner.
Next generations
While the brothers look on proudly and plan the overall “greening” of their fleet of excavators, stump grinders, trucks and saws, two other generations watched on as the brother’s mom, Alethea, who was a guiding light of their father and her husband, Eddie’s predecessor business, as well as Malcolm’s daughters Mia (3) and Fifi (six months) watch on in the hope of maybe one day following in their family’s tree-loving footsteps.
