The Company is a leader in the design and manufacture of high quality agricultural
equipment and infrastructure maintenance equipment for governmental and industrial
use. The Company’s products include tractor-mounted mowing and other vegetation
maintenance equipment, street sweepers, excavators, vacuum trucks, snow removal
equipment, pothole patchers, zero turn radius mowers, agricultural implements
and related aftermarket parts. The Company emphasizes high quality, cost-effective
products for its customers and strives to develop and market innovative products
while constantly monitoring and seeking to contain its manufacturing and overhead
costs. The Company has a long-standing strategy of supplementing its internal
growth through acquisitions of businesses or product lines that currently complement,
command, or have the potential to achieve a meaningful share of their niche
markets. The Company operates a total of twenty four plants in North America,
Europe and Australia. The Company sells its products primarily through a network
of independent dealers and distributors to governmental end-users, related independent
contractors, as well as to the agricultural and commercial turf markets. The
primary markets for our products are North America, Western Europe and Australia.
Since its founding in 1969, the Company has focused on satisfying customer
needs through geographic market expansion, product development and refinement,
and selected acquisitions. The Company’s first products were based on
rotary cutting technology. Through acquisitions, the Company added flail cutting
technology in 1983 and sickle-bar cutting technology in 1984. The Company added
to its presence in the industrial and governmental vegetation markets with the
acquisition of Tiger Corporation (“Tiger”) in late 1994.
The Company entered the agricultural mowing markets in 1986 with the acquisition
of Rhino Products Inc. (“Rhino”), a leading manufacturer in this
field. With this acquisition, the Company embarked on a strategy to increase
the Rhino dealer distribution network during a period of industry contraction.
The addition of M&W Gear Company (“M&W”) in early 1995 allowed
the Company to enter into the manufacturing and distribution of tillage equipment,
which complements the Rhino distribution network. M&W has been integrated
into the agricultural marketing group.
In 1991, the Company began its international expansion with the acquisition
of McConnel Ltd. (“McConnel”), a United Kingdom (“U.K.”)
manufacturer of vegetation maintenance equipment, principally hydraulic boom-mounted
hedge and grass cutters and related parts. Bomford-Turner Ltd. (“Bomford”),
also a U.K. company, was acquired in 1993. Bomford is a manufacturer of heavy-duty,
tractor-mounted grass and hedge mowing equipment. McConnel and Bomford sell
their products to dealers and distributors through their respective sales forces.
In 1994, the Company acquired Signalisation Moderne Autoroutiere S.A. (“SMA”)
located in Orleans, France. SMA manufactures and sells principally a line of
heavy-duty, tractor-mounted grass and hedge mowing equipment and associated
replacement parts primarily to departments of the French government. This acquisition,
along with the acquisitions of Forges Gorce, a flail blade manufacturer in France,
in 1996 and Rousseau Holdings S.A. (“Rousseau”), a leading French
manufacturer of hedge and verge mowers, in 2004, when combined with McConnel
and Bomford, has made the Company one of the largest manufacturers in the European
market for the kind of equipment sold by the Company.
he Company believes that within the U.S. it is a leading supplier to governmental
markets, a leading supplier in the U.S. agricultural market, and one of the
largest suppliers in the European market for its key niche product offerings.
The Company’s products are sold through the Company’s various marketing
organizations and extensive worldwide dealer and distributor networks under
the Alamo Industrial®, Terrain King®, Tiger®, Gradall®, VacAll®,
Schwarze®, Nite-Hawk®, Henke®, Tenco®, Super Products® ,
Wausau-Everest™, H.P. Fairfield™, Bush Hog®, Rhino®, Earthmaster®,
Herschel®, Valu-Bilt®, Schulte®, Superior®, Fieldquip®,
McConnel®, Bomford®, Spearhead™, Twose™, Kellands®,
SMA®, Forges Gorce™, Faucheux™, Rousseau™ and Rivard®
trademarks (some with related designs) as well as other trademarks and trade
names.
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