PRODUCT NEWS

Morbark Announces New Dealers

Morbark, LLC, and its affiliated brands, Rayco and Denis Cimaf, have selected Brandt Tractor Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Brandt Group of Companies, as the exclusive, authorized dealer for their tree care (brush chippers, stump cutters, articulated wheel loaders), forestry/biomass (whole tree drum chippers, Chiparvestors, flails), recycling (horizontal and tub grinders), and Rayco Forestry/ Denis Cimaf (forestry mulchers and mulching attachments) equipment lines in Canada.

“For Morbark, it was an easy choice to sign Brandt as our exclusive dealer in Canada,” says Michael Stanton, vice president of sales and marketing. “Their 56 full-service locations will provide our Canadian customers with the complete support they need and deserve.”

Brandt was founded in 1932 as a small electrical contractor in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. After nine decades of impressive growth, the company has become the world’s largest John Deere dealer, owning and operating a total of 120 full-service equipment dealerships in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Since executing the contract, Brandt sales and service teams have been busy preparing to support Morbark, Rayco, and Denis Cimaf customers by participating in sales

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and service trainings and building their inventory of equipment and aftermarket parts. l Additionally, Morbark, LLC, has announced that Maverick Environmental Equipment is the new, exclusive dealer of Rayco Forestry mulchers in Ohio. With two branches in Newbury and Bremen, Maverick is also an authorized dealer for Morbark’s industrial equipment product lines, which include horizontal and tub grinders, whole tree drum and disc chippers, and flails.

Maverick began operations in 2016 when equipment industry veterans Tim Smith and Charlie Stahl joined forces to build their own company. The company focuses on providing machinerybased solutions for environmental applications, including aggregate processing, waste recycling, forestry and biomass.

“We are dedicated to bringing our customers the highest quality products. This means partnering with top-tier manufacturers, like Rayco and Morbark, whose products work hard and take on the toughest materials,” says Tim Smith, managing partner, Maverick Environmental Equipment.

Maverick Equipment recently displayed a Rayco C120 Forestry mulcher with a Denis Cimaf mulching head (FM120-6CF) at the 2022 Paul Bunyan Show in Cambridge, Ohio. They also demonstrated a Morbark 6400XT Track Wood Hog horizontal grinder.

Bob Vermeer Guided Family Operation

Robert “Bob” Lee Vermeer, who drove the growth of Vermeer Corp. and its line of whole tree chippers and other wood processing equipment, died on August 17. He was 78. His vibrant love of people, passion for Christ, distinct laugh and desire to put others first is what those who knew him will remember most.

Born in Oskaloosa, Ia. to Gary and Matilda Vermeer, Vermeer grew up on a family farm near Pella, Iowa where his love for the outdoors, animals and life on the farm was evident.

From an early age, he loved spending time with his parents and two siblings, Stan and Mary. They grew up watching their father and founder of Vermeer, Gary Vermeer, build a company based on values while innovating better ways to do work on the farm.

After high school, Bob attended Dordt College for a two-year degree. He transferred to Central College, graduating in 1966. His first job out of college was working at Marion County Bank, working there until 1973.

In 1968, Vermeer married Lois

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DeJong and they raised three children—Daniel, Heidi and Allison— in Pella.

Bob joined Vermeer in 1974 and held multiple roles that drove the business strategy and long-term growth of Vermeer, including as CEO beginning in 1989 and later Co-CEO in 2003. He also served as Chair of the Board from 1989 through 2014. It was during his tenure that the business grew to more than 60 countries on six continents. On the family side, Bob was a leader in promoting succession planning to transition the business to future generations of the Vermeer family.

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Ponsee NA Expands To Southern U.S.

Ponsse North America, Inc has expanded its operations to Midway, Fla. right outside of Tallahassee. The main factors that influencedthis development are the growing demand for cut-tolength wood and an increase in machine sales in the South, according to Ponsse.

“Forestry is our focus and all we do. We are extremely excited about our expansion to the South because of the number of mill investments with new facilities opening, reopening of shutdown mills and capacity increases.

It is time for cut-to-length to be more dominant in the South like it is currently in the northern part of the U.S.” states Pekka Ruuskanen, President and CEO of Ponsse North America, Inc.

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