Rob Burr describes himself as “not a gambling man”, but risking 1,500 Euros on the drawings for a range of quality vineyard equipment when the Italian manufacturer ceased trading proved to be a good bet.
The investment resulted in a Dropbox link to 2,500 technical plans for a range of machinery that Rob knew from experience was some of the best on the market. Using his own expertise to make a number of improvements, he now includes those pieces of equipment amongst the Voxx Machinery range he manufactures at Marden in Kent.
“It was a bit of a gamble,” he confessed. “When I knew the company was going out of business, I emailed the address on the website and asked if I could buy the drawings. I didn’t get a reply for quite some time and in the meantime the website was taken down.
“Eventually someone got in touch and quoted me 1,500 Euros. I asked what I would be getting for my money, but they weren’t very forthcoming, so I just had to trust to luck.”
The new machinery, which included vine trimmers and deleafers amongst other “solid and reliable” equipment, was a useful addition to the Voxx Machinery range, which also features items Rob has designed from scratch and builds at Marden with the help of skilled craftsmen Tony Harris and Harley Harryman
In an earlier but equally astute move, Rob had already bought the drawings for the renowned Port Agric range of machinery when that company went out of business, again making a number of tweaks aimed at “making great quality machinery even better”.
The increasingly popular Voxx Machinery range now includes an in-house designed strimmer and side-discharge flail mower, a direct drill for sowing cover crops amongst the vines, a vine trimmer, a de-leafer and a modular bud rubber that can be quickly and easily adapted to suit different canopy heights.
The combination of his own expertise and an eye for building on existing designs has seen Voxx Machinery pick up an appreciative customer base in vineyards looking for well-built, reliable equipment. “Our equipment is built to do the job for the next 20 years, not the next five,” said Rob, whose grandfather Bert farmed at nearby Wanshurst Green Farm for 65 or so years.
The farming bug skipped a generation, but Rob spent much of his childhood with his grandparents and picked up a love of farming in general and machinery in particular, something which fascinated him as a child and still inspires him to find a better way of tackling problems as an adult.
Despite his background, his first venture was setting up a car body shop which specialised in respraying high-end vehicles, after which he obtained his commercial pilot’s licence and flew for a living for 10 years.
It was after marrying his first wife Harriet that he returned to the world of agriculture, setting up a tractor dealership under the Pinks Agri brand and supplying machinery from Zetor, Vicon, Twose and Opico amongst other brands.
The sad death of Harriet in 2015 saw him stop and take a breath, but by 2017, he “got itchy feet”. Looking for a new challenge, he bid for, and won, a grant to develop a ‘proof of concept’ for a battery-powered all-terrain mower that would be suitable for areas such as paddocks.
Successfully completing that project re-ignited his love of machinery, at which point he bought the drawings, and Voxx Machinery, part of Pinks Group Ltd, was born.
“I have always been fascinated by machinery and I am lucky enough to have been born with a good degree of common sense,” Rob said. “I can look at something, understand how it works and figure out how to make it; more importantly, I can often see how to make it better.
“While I love machinery, I never wanted just to be an engineer, following someone else’s instructions. I like to be in at the start and create something, to build something from nothing. I really enjoy what I am doing now and only wish I had started up the business ten years earlier.”
Along with a range of vineyard machinery, Rob has created a flourishing business which will once again be meeting customers old and new at this year’s Vineyard & Winery Show on 20 November at the Kent County Showground.
Voxx products are sold both direct to the grower, which helps keep prices competitive, or via select dealerships. The range is continuing to grow, while the company itself has grown steadily over the past seven years.
Rob has had success most recently with his new undervine strimmer which doesn’t disturb the soil and reduces the need to use chemicals to tackle unwanted vegetation. More importantly, his unique design means both heads on the strimmer can be re-corded and back in action in around 15 minutes.
“Given how long it normally takes to change the heads on a strimmer, the Voxx Machinery model can save hours of labour, and since time is money, that can amount to big savings for the grower,” he commented.
The side-discharge flail mower, another popular Voxx Machinery product, is another of Rob’s own designs that is building a fan base amongst growers. Currently made to order in the workshop, the plan now is to build up stock over the winter so that the mowers will be available from stock for 2025.
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