Europe's largest turf grower, York-based Rolawn, is using state-of-the-art technology to help grow its market share by creating a network of 18 specially-built turf coolers.

The coolers have been developed and engineered to the company's design and can be found at Rolawn depots and leading stockists.

With the capacity to keep up to ten pallets of turf fresh for several days, the new coolers are the result of years of research and an investment which runs well into six figures.

Last summer's heat wave - the hottest in Europe for 500 years - proved to be a major challenge as Rolawn attempted to harvest its turf at Elvington and deliver the perishable product in 30 plus degrees celsius.

Terry Ryan, Rolawn's sales and marketing director, said: "At busy times, Rolawn makes hundreds of deliveries a day. Naturally we want to do all that we can to capture sales and ensure that our customers, depots and stockists receive turf in excellent condition. The coolers are the most visible part of an overall system and are an important part of our strategy.

"The main purpose of a turf cooler is business development - we know that in order to maximise our potential we have to have turf in stock so that we can service short notice orders but this has to be balanced against the fact that turf has a very short shelf life."

Updated: 09:38 Thursday, April 01, 2004