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1. What is your role at CCGrass?

I am the European Office CEO. Specifically, I manage the CCGrass sports range in northern Europe, in main markets such as Scandinavia, UK, Ireland and Germany, although we are trying to enter other markets as well.

2. Why create the European office?

CCGrass is the largest manufacturer of synthetic turf and has huge landscape markets globally, but in sport we struggled to access some large markets. These, we felt, required more of a local presence, to offer sales, marketing and technical support to meet customers concerns. We located in Germany, to be relatively central and to have a presence in one of the toughest and most restricted European countries for synthetic turf.

3. What is your history in the artificial grass industry?

This has been for most of my working career, and takes in working for major brands, at the time, including Desso and TigerTurf. I have also been a director of the UK trade association SAPCA and director of ESTO, the European equivalent. Perhaps one of my most enjoyable periods was CEO at Bonar Yarns for three years, before its sale to Mattex.

I am proud to have had a hand in developing products such as the fibre injected systems in natural turf that are now in most major stadiums, texturised monofilaments for hockey that replaced older nylon surfaces, as the “go to” turf, as well as naming, creating and establishing a global synthetic turf brand.

Now, I am absolutely thrilled to work for the world’s largest producer of synthetic turf, and their wonderful team.

4. How have you seen the industry change?

Massively. From sand obscured fibrillating polypropylene to the advanced football turf produced by CCGrass today, the changes have been staggering. The most impactful was the introduction in the late 90’s of longer pile surfaces, with a sand and recycled rubber infill. These, at some point, became known as 3G, and have become the norm for so many footballers to play on. The increase in the number of pitches installed, globally, is staggering.

Quite simply, I am that old, that when I started in the industry, 99 out of 100 people had never seen or heard of artificial grass. Now, it is everywhere.

For more information or any enquiries
contact Bryn Lee on 07765 401199
bryn.lee@ccgrass.eu