in power

Journalists covering Equip Expo have a love-hate relationship with the event’s press conference schedule. On the one hand, it’s great because it helps us set a calendar for the event. On the other hand, there are generally too many press events, and the schedule can change last minute. That happened with Masport and I made the mistake of not looking at the updated event spreadsheet (can we just quit doing spreadsheets, please?).

When I arrived at Masport’s display at the (previously) scheduled time, I learned there was no press event. Honestly, that was good because I could go do something else. But wait, why did the manufacturer schedule and then cancel a press event? That might be a story right there. I was interested in Masport’s press event because the company had not done one before, at least in my years covering Equip Expo. I wanted to know more about the manufacturer and about Daye North America, Masport’s owner. (You can scroll down to read a bit more about Daye).

Lucky for me, I was introduced to Jeff Eisenberg, Masport’s director of product. And he sat with me to share more of the brand’s story and its cancelled press event.

Who is Masport?

In Power

Who is Masport and why are they here with a fairly large display?

Jeff Eisenberg, Director of Product

Masport is an Australia and New Zealand brand that’s been around for 115 years. They’re like number 1 or number 2 in the market over there. Very well known, very high consumer trust, and they’ve done a great job over there. They have been in the U.S. for about 10 years, but that was solely through a distributor. When Daye acquired European outdoor power equipment brand AL-KO Gardentech [AL-KO is a German brand with manufacturing in Austria and it purchased Masport in 2017], our organization grew.

The goal right now is to figure out how we take that heritage that exists in 45 different countries and build a U.S. dealer-specific brand and product offering that we don’t have today. Daye makes Murray, which is totally different consumer and different channel. And we want to figure out how we could build a product offering that goes after that dealer channel.

History from Wikipedia

In December 1910, Reuben Porter, Harold Mason, and Edwin Jones founded City Engineering Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand. The company initially produced vacuum pumps and stationary engines for agricultural equipment. in 1915 it was renamed to Mason and Porter Ltd. In 1930, Masport introduced its first hand-operated lawnmower, and in 1938, it developed New Zealand’s first petrol-powered lawnmower. Ningbo Daye Garden Machinery acquired 100% of AL-KO Gardentech, including Masport, in 2025. AL-KO owned the Masport brand since 2017.

In Power

So you’re setting up dealers right now for Masport?

Eisenberg

Yes, we’re going to soft launch this, because we’re a little bit late right now. We’ll have product in early Q1. We have a small lead team right now, and we’re here trying to figure out how interested dealers are. Honestly, the show so far has been really positive.

Some people do know the brand and consider it to be a good value for the money. That obviously helps us in a sense. But we want to reimagine Masport in the U.S. A lot of people don’t necessarily care about the history, even if you tell them 115 years. So we have to build trust. That’s the biggest thing. So we have to start somewhere. We have a really great product offering.

What’s unique is that a lot of the guys in the dealer space, they don’t really offer products in each of these categories. Even the commercial dealers, they’re really good at zero-turns or ride-on mowers. They don’t really offer walk-behinds, and there’s a space right now with that.

So people are looking for other options. There is opportunity there and a lot of chatter about walk-behinds. With Stanley Black & Decker kind of walking away from chore and walk products, there are not that many offerings there. I mean, outside of Toro on the prosumer gas side. So there’s just a tremendous amount of opportunity right now. We want to make sure that people know we’re thinking about the end consumer and the dealer.

What is the group’s sales channel goal?

In Power

You’re targeting independent servicing dealers?

Eisenberg

Yes. We want them to make sure that they understand, we’re going to launch the product with a full offering of parts. There are brands out there that launch product and dealer network and they don’t have the right parts at launch.

In Power

Where are these mowers manufactured?

Eisenberg

In China. Right now, we’re doing final assembly on walk-behinds in a facility in Ladson, South Carolina. But the ride-ons are manufactured in China.

Are we talking gas or batteries?

In Power

And it’s all gas product?

Eisenberg

All gas. For right now, gas is king for us still for the consumer, especially in the dealer category. The walk-behinds category share has drifted back towards gas from battery, at least in residential. And I still think the total cost of ownership fight has been a bigger challenge for battery more recently. I think after some years, people have seen through a lot of the talk about batteries. They’re not known to last you as long as you think they should. Like after 3 years, your battery’s dead. You have to go buy 2 new batteries. It’s 600 bucks. I can just go buy a gas walk-behind for 600 bucks. So I think battery in general is like hitting this really important time, and I think gas is a big opportunity.

In Power

What’s your overall brand story? You mentioned value a minute ago.

Eisenberg

We’re going after three pillars: performance, serviceability, and durability. Value is not really a pillar for a brand. You just end up having value in a product you built. But all of the ride-ons here are under 4 grand, really competitively priced. They all have fabricated decks. We are not offering stamped steel decks. They all come stock with Oregon Gator blades on them, which is unique. They’re all Briggs engines, with V twins on the zero-turns, a V twin on the bigger deck tractor, and then a single cylinder on the walk-behinds.

Both of the walk-behind mowers are self-propelled and rear-wheel drive. One is a single speed and then one is a variable speed. 23-inch decks, 22-inch cuts. So a little bit bigger. We’re not trying to be the bottom of the barrel. That’s a game we don’t want to play. We want to offer good quality at a good price.

You can play the low-price game, but that’s not how you build a brand. If you want to just sell product, great, make it disposable. That doesn’t get people to come back to it.

Who is Daye North America?

Daye North America (DNA) has a hedquarters office in Charlotte, N.C. and a manufacturing / assembly facility in Ladson, S.C. DNA is a subsidiary of Ningbo Daye Power Machinery Company based in China.

Brands under the DNA umbrella, along with Masport, include:

Murray – Daye owns the Murray brand of mowers – walk-behind and riding – sold through Home Depot

Snapper – Through a licensing agreement, DNA controls the Snapper brand after its time with Briggs & Stratton. On the brand’s website, Snapper shows a variety of “coming soon” mowers and lawn tractors.

Green Machine – This Daye brand of residential lawn equipment is sold online and at Home Depot.

Black Max – Daye makes the push mowers under the Black Max brand sold at Walmart.

Hyper Tough – Daye manufactures a 20-in walk-behind mower for Walmart’s private-label line of power equipment. But Daye does not make any other tools or equipment for Hyper Tough.