20 Years Ago…

Stihl Inc. announced a $60.8 million investment at its Virginia Beach headquarters that includ- ed a major expansion with the purchase of more acre- age and the addition of 200 jobs, scheduled for completion in 2005.

In the March 2003 issue, CESSCO in Portland, Ore., 20 years ago, was a dealership moving away from its rental business roots and looking to diversify into power equipment. The dealership remains in business today as an industrial job site equipment supplier and is still a Stihl dealer.

He was Shop PETs before Shop PETs were cool! Yoshi, iguana mascot, keeps a close eye on the showroom 20 years ago at Sandy Plains Mower & Saw in Marietta, Ga. recently held an open house that drew more than 100 customers, and was in the midst of upgrading its digital technology to include point of purchase systems. Oh, and the labor rate was $45/hr.

A hot technology topic was Electronic Data Interchange, an established business to business communications system that would connect dealers, distributors and OEMs way back in the old days before the Internet became the ubiquitous presence across the supply chain that it is today.