Spirit of optimism:
WINTERSTEIGER sets foot on North American soil
In 1986, WINTERSTEIGER set up a subsidiary in Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Division Seedmech. In order to tap into the large American market with "Made in USA" products, the newly developed Nurserymaster Elite plot combine was assembled in Lincoln.
Relocation to Salt Lake City, Utah.
In 1989, a second US site in Salt Lake City for the Division Sports was established. The original team of seven people included a certain Brian Kamm, who was our first employee and is still with the team today. The Sports team initially introduced the stone grinding machine MCR 800 to the market with great success.
After high losses at the subsidiary in Lincoln, the decision was made in 1990 to merge the two sites and to shut down the operation in Nebraska. Key employees from Lincoln found a new home in Salt Lake City. Since then, Salt Lake City has been the headquarters for the American market. Around one third of our 90 employees as well as the majority of our administrative staff currently work in Salt Lake City.
WINTERSTEIGER Canada.
WINTERSTEIGER Canada, an independent sales partner for our Sports products in Canada, ran into serious financial trouble in 1994 and WINTERSTEIGER took over the site and staff in Laval, Quebec. Led by Nicolas Nadeau, the team in Laval is primarily responsible for supporting our customers across Canada.
Purchase of Grindrite in Vermont.
Grindrite, an American competitor that produced snowboard service machines,
was taken over in 1999. WINTERSTEIGER successfully managed to integrate the former employees into the team and maintain the site in Waitsfield. The Grindrite team, led by Stan Wolliner, is still part of our SPORTS team today and strengthens the support of our customers on the East Coast.
Three additional Seedmech sites.
After the relocation from Lincoln to Salt Lake City, it was difficult to grow the business in the beginning and the decision was made to set up additional service sites. The first was opened in the western Canadian town of Saskatoon in 1999, in the center of a large agricultural region with a focus on rapeseed and cereals. This was followed in 2001 by Ankeny in Iowa when colleague Sean Soyer set off from Salt Lake City to establish a service point in the heart of the American Corn Belt. Bradford, TN was added in 2013 when Brandon Jorgenson moved from Iowa to Tennessee to be closer to our customers in the south of the USA.
Woodtech gets its own site in Tennessee.
The successful market launch of our thin-cutting band saws for manufacturing parquet made it necessary to be closer to our customers. Jason Fry, who originally worked for our Sports team in Salt Lake City, has been running our subsidiary in Spring Hill, TN since 2019. We look after the majority of our customers from Tennessee, but also plan to use the site for the expansion of the Division Metals.
Seven sites for customers in all states.
WINTERSTEIGER USA is spread across seven sites in order to be able to provide the best possible service to customers in the USA and Canada. The size of the North American continent and the fact that WINTERSTEIGER customers are spread across all 50 states of the USA and all 10 Canadian provinces present major challenges. WINTERSTEIGER now generates sales of over 50 million USD in the North American market, which corresponds to around 25% of group sales.