With an association lasting over a decade, Queensland company Ausplay Playscapes has only good things to say about A1 Rubber and its products.
Ausplay Playscapes – ‘Ausplay’ in general conversation – specialises in all early childhood playgrounds and surfacing for childcare centres and schools.
Based in Richlands, Queensland, the company services childcare centres, schools and local government, as well as the commercial and retail sectors, and has grown to where it now has 28 employees.
Director Dean Kneebone summed up Ausplay’s services: “We’re a one-stop shop. We do everything: surfacing, shade and playgrounds.”
Good product
Dean also personally handles sales for the company throughout Queensland, and he recalled a long association with A1 Rubber.
“We’ve been using A1 Rubber products since we opened in 2011,” he told Landscape Contractor magazine. “We have four of their mixers,” Dean outlined.
“We have a couple of old mixers from a previous life, but they stay in the shed. We definitely only use A1 Rubber mixers now.”
We wondered which of the products from the A1 Rubber catalogue was used most by Ausplay, and which was a favourite.
Dean was happy to tell us.
“It’d be their soft-pour rubber…CSBR, Procure, Shockpads…that’s mainly our forte and the products we use most.
“The CSBR is probably a favourite. A1 Rubber’s coating process of the material is second to none.
“We’ve had a few guys knock on our door and try and match A1 Rubber, but they offer inferior product. A1 Rubber is clearly the market leader in the coloured-rubber region.”
Enduring partnership
For Ausplay to have stuck with one supplier for over a decade must mean that supplier is doing something right. Once again, Dean had no trouble explaining Ausplay’s long-lasting association with A1 Rubber.
“Obviously there’s been a change of hands there at A1,” he said, “but it’s never been an issue for the past 13 years. We’ve never had a problem. And if there was a problem, they’ve always been in our corner to fix it.
“I can’t speak any more highly of them.”
The quality of the A1 Rubber product has also been a big factor in the long-lasting association between the two companies. “I suppose it’s the consistency,” mused Dean, in a thoughtful kind of way.
“There’s been a lot of companies pop up across the years, but they can never offer the same consistency. Every time we’d order from them we’d get problems.
“The consistency’s been there with A1 Rubber and it’s why we’ve stuck with the company for so long. It’s consistent whenever you order it. There’s no issue. You don’t get different batches and you don’t get stock that’s different sizes. “It’s a great product.”
Good ethics. Good business
The final string in the Ausplay/A1 Rubber bow is the product being made here in Australia, by an Australian company, from recycled motor-vehicle tyres. That counts.
“Definitely!” said Dean with some passion.
“I’m the salesman as well, so when I sell the job to the clients it’s one thing that always makes them take notice: the recycling process, and where we buy it from – locally here in Queensland.
“Recycling’s probably not as big as it used to be and we probably used to market it a lot more. People know the product now. Back in the day no one knew what recycled rubber was, so to speak. Now everyone’s seen it in the park and knows what it is, so we don’t have to sell it as hard as we used to. It sells itself.
“That’s the thing.
“The brand – and CSBR – it sells itself.”
See the full range of A1 Rubber products at a1rubber.com.