And the landscapers who love them
OPE + attended the Kress Next Summit 2025 in Colorado Springs, Co., on April 3. The manufacturer invited a couple
By Glenn Hansen dozen landscape company executives, from enterprise-level companies such as Yellowstone and Mariani, to area-specific service providers such as Teles Landscaping covering Martha’ s Vineyard and The Langton Group serving northern Illinois.
“ Kress has transformed from a product company to a technology company,” said DJ Johnson, executive V. P. of Kress, as he began a day of presentations and discussions about the current and future states of landscaping services and power equipment. Like products themselves, the discussions about these products are evolving. While Johnson and others from Kress did mention specs like blower CFM and mower cut-peracre, the day’ s discussion was more about landscaper’ s quality of life, business operations and cost-per-acre.
Don Gao, founder and CEO of Positec Tool Corporation, the parent of Kress and other tool brands including Worx, opened the meeting by pointing to two major trends he sees impacting the power equipment and landscaping industries: Electrification and Robotization. Let’ s look at that those trends through the lens of the landscape business owners in attendance along with Kress’ s announcements.
Kress introduced its KR800 robotic mower to landscape pros in Colorado Springs.
DJ Johnson( center) and Don Gao( center right) talk with landscapers at the Kress Next Summit.
Trend 1: Electrification and consumer demand
“ Our industry is luckier than the car industry,” said Gao.“ We have consumer demand. And tool manufacturers are responding.” Consumer demand, Gao acknowledges, is not the same as Professional User demand.“ For commercial use, adoption and penetration [ of battery-powered equipment ] is below 5 %,” he said.
Why so low? Gao points to four reasons, actually assumptions made by a wide range of consumers – both professional and residential – about battery-powered equipment. Here are those reasons, in brief. In this, I also cover the viewpoint of landscapers who spoke at the event.
Don Gao, Positec CEO, shows an image of the autonomous KR804 60-in. mower, with more details coming soon.
6 OPE + April 2025 www. OPE-Plus. com