Our story

The humble beginnings of a great family adventure

The adventure began in 1962 with a family of farmers who were committed to nature and its values. As a young man, Oscar Hege, the youngest son, took up a challenge: to build a nursery and landscaping business. His father believed in him. To show his support, he gave him a piece of his farmland. So, with precious few recourses, this is how Oscar launched his business. Thanks to his hard work and his human qualities, his endeavor quickly became future-proof; his gamble had paid off.

For more than 20 years, this small nursery and landscape business allowed Oscar to put food on the table for the family he had started. In the 1980s, the company was extended to include Michel and Denis, Oscar’s two sons, who joined the adventure. The collaboration of the three men proved to be a successful one. Together, they expanded the family business. The two sons, driven by their entrepreneurial spirit and backed by their father’s broad outlook, took the initiative to set up a sports field maintenance business. At the time, it proved to be a significant technical and financial challenge for this rather modest company.

In 1991, Hege Sports et Jardins came into being. It was born from the mariage between the nascent sports field service activity and the long-standing landscaping activity. Over time, the service activity took precedence over the other. And so, over the years, the nursery disappeared.

A team of trailblazers

Professionalism, considerable flexibility, attentive to requests: these are some of the company’s key strengths that its clients gladly point out. Highly focused on delivering excellent services, the team strives to provide equipment of the highest quality. In this perspective, they acquired the entire range of machines for sports fields from the German supplier Fischer.

Thus, the family business entered a new era. Hege Sports & Jardins achieved recognition and a greater profile in its industry field.
Its ability to quickly build up its expertise allowed the company to add a number of references to its order book in 1994. In fact, the cities of Monaco and Toulon placed their trust in Hege Sports et Jardins; they entrusted the company with the task of carrying out deep vertical drainage operations. Accepting this undertaking would require the very best equipment. And so, with a passionate and forward-thinking vision, the team decided to employ a machine unique in France: the Fischer perforator.

In search of excellence: machine engineering

The company is guided by a deep desire to provide its customers with the best in its field. As such, Hege Sports et Jardins embarked on an activity that was quite naturally complementary: engineering its own equipment. Taking advantage of the winter months, during which time their regular business activity slows down, Denis and his team concentrated on perfecting their tools. They possess an excellent knowledge of the soil and its limits. They also have a well-equipped workshop and, of course, a good dose of creativity.

Using all these assets and a lot of hard work, they created their own fleet of specialized equipment allowing them to diversify the company’s services and carry out ever more sophisticated work.

This has led the company to open up new possibilities for business.

1996 witnessed the culmination of an ambitious project for Hege Sport & Jardins: the Sportrac 2000 tractor. It was developed and engineered specifically for constructing sports fields. With this, the company firmly established its commitment to the development of specialized equipment. This groundbreaking tool was born in partnership with Horsch, an agricultural equipment manufacturer, and was awarded government subsidies.
In the years that followed, our range of services offered continued to evolve. Its scope expanded to include more and more large-scale projects, each requiring increasingly better adapted equipment. Today, this range now encompasses the creation of natural turf sports fields, the installation of in-ground watering systems, as well as drainage operations. The scale of these projects has made the deployment of adequate resources necessary.

Another significant turning point for the company came in 2008. For the first time, it brought on board a qualified engineer. He joined a wildly ambitious project: the design, development and manufacturing, all in-house, of a versatile worksite machine that would comply with official field construction standards. The challenge was met with flying colors; one year later, the machine was ready for deployment and the project bore fruit almost immediately. As a result, the company became more competitive and improved their speed of execution. Hege Sport et Jardins was becoming even more proficient in carrying out large-scale projects. However, the team’s endeavors were not restricted only to machine development for large-scale applications.

The battle against lawn-choking worm castings was undertaken. The technical team expanded its fleet of equipment by developing a mechanical, chemical-free solution to ridding a turf of its worm castings. In 2009, the initiative ended with a new success; the Joker 184 sportsfield harrow joined the Hege Sport et Jardins family of machines. Engineered and built in-house, and consisting of a height-adjustable tine rake, it is a high precision tool.
This device is proving extremely successful. Handy and eco-friendly, it is particularly popular with local authorities for the maintenance of their sports fields. Over time it has been supplemented with additional attachments and has become very versatile and effective on natural turf, as well as on synthetic and graveled surfaces.

At the current time, a workshop dedicated exclusively to research and development is being built, in which prototypes can be assembled and tested. The next chapter in the Hege Sols Sportifs story will soon commence.

Hege Sols Sportifs today

Hege Sports et Jardins has seen many changes since its creation. Its service range is constantly being perfected, but above all, it has expanded to include an important sector dedicated to machine creation. In 2011 it was rebranded and Hege Sols Sportifs assumed the baton.
Modern and passionate, the company is now joined by a third generation of team members. These young newcomers contribute their energy, their passion, and their thirst for learning. The future of the company shines brightly in their hands.

The range of machines intended for sale only continues to diversify: the Perfecto, the Rapido, the Précis have joined the arsenal. A growing panel of outdoor sports professionals are turning to Hege Sols Sportifs. Landscapers, equestrian centers, and soon, golf courses, are receiving the attention of the engineering team. This team focuses on designing machines to tackle any specific problem that each of them may encounter. The work of engineering specialized equipment happens regularly in collaboration with clients in order to better serve their expectations. Hege Sols Sportifs is evolving, refining its services, and broadening its scope of services, but it remains deeply rooted in the history of the founding family and committed to its values.

Two complementary branches

The company’s latest investment followed as a matter of course: in 2018, it invested in a modern 1.300 m² fabrication facility. This building houses the latest generation of equipment: spray booth, shot blasting machine, bending machine, etc. Its aim is to honor a backlog of constantly growing orders for machines. Over the years, Hege Sols Sportifs’ offer has been divided into two related branches: the provision of services and the fabrication of high-performance machines. This latter branch sees a continuous demand. So, the year 2019 marked the beginning of a new adventure when the two branches were separated. The research and development arm becomes Hege Applications, entirely dedicated to the engineering and manufacturing of outstanding machines.