The UK, and particularly the south east corner, may now be rivalling some of its European neighbours for the quality of its grapes and its wine, but when it comes to experience in producing machinery, the French have some world leaders in their ranks.
One company that has taken advantage of that wealth of engineering heritage is Vitimech, which supplies a range of quality vineyard equipment including that manufactured by Collard and Calvet, which both have a long-standing French pedigree.
Chichester-based Vitimech is a relatively new entrant into the viticulture market but set out its stall from day one as a quality equipment supplier. “Our aim is to deliver customer-focused solutions to growers based around robust but flexible machinery,” explained sales manager James Brett.
The company’s stand at the Vineyard & Winery Show featured Italian-built Agrofer undervine weeders and cultivation equipment alongside machinery from Collard and sprayers from Calvet.
Vitimech also supplies the impressively flexible Avant range of loaders, and specialises in adapting those machines to carry a range of Collard equipment such as vine trimmers, leaf removers and pre-pruners. “Fitting an Avant 760 loader with a Collard LZP polyvalent frame that can then be used with a range of different equipment is a cost-effective option for new growers,” James explained.
“That would give a smaller vineyard all the equipment it needs to establish and care for their vines, plus a flexible loader and multi tool, for about the same cost as a high-end vineyard tractor.”
He added that Collard, based in the Champagne region of France, had been designing leaf removers, pre-pruners and vine trimmers for three generations. “They are robust and effective, and they do exactly what they are supposed to do,” he said. “It’s a simple, efficient design, but it works well.”
Parent company Chichester Farm Machinery set up Vitimech to support customers who were looking for replacement parts for Collard machines they had bought direct from the French manufacturer, which invented the world’s first vine trimmer in 1962.
With demand clearly set to grow for quality vineyard machinery across the south of the UK, the company opened discussions with Collard and was invited to become the sole UK distributor for its equipment.
With that deal done, the French manufacturer introduced the Chichester Farm Machinery team to Calvet, a leading sprayer manufacturer with an equally well-deserved reputation for quality machinery that has already earned itself a strong foothold in UK vineyards.
“Calvet offers a large range of sprayers that are ideally suited to both large and small operations,” explained James. “They have been in the irrigation business since 1956 and have established themselves as the market leaders, with 25% of the sprayer market share in their home country. Calvet prides itself on innovative technology and on its drift prevention system, operational precision and powerful fan in particular.”
Vitimech also offers the full range of Avant attachments, Dieci telehandlers, mowers from Teagle and Maschio, and Infaco electric pruning shears and tying tools.
Although Vitimech specialises in supporting vineyards, the company has access to a huge amount of other non vineyard-specific products as well as on-site workshops and mobile fitters to deal with repairs, fabrication, sprayer testing and safety checks.
