Helgstrand Dressage ApS and X-Drive Robot ApS jointly invest in the new company Riding Arena Robots, which, as the name might indicate, shall develop and sell autonomous robots that even and maintain riding arenas all over the world.
- It takes a lot of man-hours and tools in terms of tractors etc. for our riding arenas to be maintained and always primed to ensure the best ground for the horses to work on, Andreas, owner and CEO of Helgstrand Dressage, says and continues; We have been introduced to a business project that has been thoroughly worked through – it involves the development of an autonomous robot that can prepare riding arenas, and as we find a huge potential in this field of business, we have chosen to invest in it.
The new robot has already been projected, technical requirements are specified and the product development has got off to a good start. Prototypes will be ready for launching before summer 2021 and will afterwards go through numerous tests before the product can be released to the market, expectedly ultimo 2021.
A sustainable solution with huge potential
- The robot is power-driven and should be able to drive all by itself. It can be compared to an autonomous lawnmower and the way it works in peoples private gardens. It will be able to charge itself and with built-in sensors, it can steer around fences as well. That way the robot can both be used on dressage as well as showjumping arenas. As the robot is electric, it is concurrently a sustainable solution, not only climate-wise but also in a way where it doesn’t pollute the same way a tractor does, Andreas concludes.
Helgstrand Dressage has chosen to inaugurate their commercial director, Anders Bjørnstrup, as the CEO in the new firm, Riding Arena Robots. This is partly to manage the supervision of the process of development, partly for quality assurance as well as preparing the products for an introduction to the market, including organizing the company to ensure abilities within sales management, support and further product development.
- There are lots of advantages for the end-user by using this product: it is time-saving, it cuts costs related to tractor and fuel, the robot can work during the night, when the arena is empty and then such a quality robot will be more precise and careful, making sure that the arena will be absolutely perfectly evened, Anders says, and continues; When we look at the market potential, there are more than 33.000 riding arenas only in Europe, so we see a lot of potentials.
- We could not find a more suitable partner for this project, says Klaus Kesje, sales director for X-Drive Robots and adds; Helgstrand Dressage has the complete knowledge about the market and the customer needs, which would be hard to find in another partner. At the same time, Helgstrand Dressage is a very big international player, which creates an even better opportunity for us to pursue our common ambitions about going global.
