Gardena

Gardena came into being in 1961, founded in Ulm by two local entrepreneurs, as an importation company focusing on selling French garden equipment in West Germany. Seven years later in 1968, the firm had acquired enough capital and experience to begin marketing its first in-house item, the Original Gardena System, an arrangement of interchangeable hose connectors which added considerable versatility to garden watering setups. Growth was strong and steady after this breakthrough, with Gardena adding new product ranges at regular intervals over the years. Cordless “Accu Grande” electric grass shears appeared in 1973, followed by interchangeable tool heads and shafts in 1977, automatic watering systems in the 1980s, and more. The company was purchased by Husqvarna Group in 2007 and is maintained as a major garden tool brand.

Gardena’s centerpiece line today consists of its famous and well-received robotic lawnmowers. These quiet, compact little devices move over the lawn in random patterns to avoid creating wheel ruts in the turf, and return to their charging station when their batteries are getting low. These mowers are rainproof, able to stand up to even heavy rainstorms without shorting out, and feature anti-theft alarms to prevent their removal from the user’s yard. The company products are manufactured in both Germany and the Czech Republic, and sales subsidiaries appear in 22 nations worldwide. Gardena equipment is retailed in no less than 80 countries today, with the firm reporting annual profits of €422 million, or approximately $580 million.

Gardena boasts an extensive range of lawn and garden powered and manual tools in addition to its robotic lawnmowers. Rotary and cylinder lawnmowers, grass trimmers, cordless shears, hedge trimmers, saws, garden tillers, leaf blowers and vacuums, and similar devices are all found in the German firm’s range, manufactured to the exacting standards of workmanship for which the company’s products are noted. Gardena also offers a full range of irrigation and water management products, including “smart” automatic watering systems.