Caterpillar Inc. has acquired the assets of Blount’s Forestry Division.

Under the agreement between Caterpillar and Blount, Caterpillar acquired two Blount manufacturing facilities — a sales office and a service parts warehouse and product support operation in North America as well as an assembly operation in Sweden. These operations will join Caterpillar’s global facilities that produce and support forestry equipment. Since 2003, Caterpillar and Blount have had an agreement to jointly produce and market products globally under the Caterpillar and former Timberking brands.

“Caterpillar and Blount have worked closely together since our initial agreement, leveraging Caterpillar’s unmatched worldwide distribution and long forestry heritage with Blount’s legacy of product excellence,” said John Heller, Caterpillar vice president, forestry division. “This acquisition will provide greater opportunities for integrating Caterpillar’s state-of-the-art design and components into the forestry products that previously have been manufactured by Blount.”

Blount International Inc., headquartered in Portland, Ore., consists of two business segments: The Outdoor Products Group and the Industrial and Power Equipment Group, which includes its Forestry Division. For more than 50 years, Blount’s Forestry Division has manufactured products such as timber harvesting and processing equipment, loaders and attachments.

“Caterpillar recognizes the value of our experienced workforce and our long history of market-leading products,” said Dennis Eagan, president of Blount’s Industrial and Power Equipment Group. “Our dealers and customers can expect a smooth transition of ownership and will be well served by Caterpillar.”

In 2006, Caterpillar permitted Blount to replace the Timberking brand of forestry products with the Caterpillar and Cat brands. The Timberking line included products manufactured by both Caterpillar and Blount and sold exclusively through Caterpillar dealers. The acquisition of Blount’s operations will bring all product design, development and manufacturing under Caterpillar.

“This acquisition supports our corporate objective to be the forestry market leader,” said John Carpenter, president of Caterpillar Forest Products. “Cat Forest Products now offers the broadest product line in the industry with a full range of products and services for logging, millyard, road-building and land management. In addition to better serving the needs of our traditional forestry customers, this acquisition will also enable Caterpillar to meet the increasing global demand for wood-based alternative fuels such as cellulosic ethanol.”

For more information, visit www.cat.com.

This story also appears on Forestry Equipment Guide.

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