I just found this today! Apparently I'm not the only guy to think that these are too good a quality machine to let the line die.
Portland, Maine -- Eastman Industries has acquired Ingersoll Equipment Co., based in Winneconne, Wis., which has been manufacturing premium lawn and garden tractors, mowers, loaders and backhoes since 1962.
For Eastman Industries, a manufacturer of hovering lawn mowers in the United States, it means adding a line of tractors and adding to its line of walk-behind, ride-on and hovering mowers.
“We have a nice range of commercial walk behind mowers and Ingersoll gives us the larger ride-on equipment so we have a more complete line of lawnmowers,” says Nick Nikazmerad, president of Eastman. “It completes the circle for us and it gives us a good match.”
Eastman plans to move Ingersoll’s manufacturing and administrative facilities to join with its existing facilities in Portland, Maine. Nikazmerad says a new building will be constructed that will house both the Eastman and Ingersoll manufacturing lines.
“We’ve been to the Ingersoll facility and we’re looking at what we can do to make the new facility more efficient and up to date,” he says. “More than likely, we’ll be using lean manufacturing, which we do at Eastman, to make our production lean and competitive.”
For dealers, this is great news according to Linda Thompson, Eastman’s national sales manager. She says that Eastman dealers will now be able to add Ingersoll products to their showrooms. She adds that the company plans to keep Ingersoll’s current distribution network while looking for additional distributors to expand the company’s distribution.
“The brand has a great following and a great reputation and we’re hoping to improve on it modernize it,” Nikazmerad says. “We have no intention to change the color or diminish the brand identity of the tractors and equipment.”
Monday, May 9, 2005
"Man's mind stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension." -Oliver Wendell Holmes
