Exodus Machines Forms Alliance with Caterpillar

Exodus Machines Inc., a Superior, Wis.-based manufacturer of material handlers, and Caterpillar, headquartered in Peoria, Ill., have jointly announced an alliance. Exodus’ purpose-built material handlers will now be available through the Cat dealer network in North America. The companies plan to sell the machines globally in the future

According to Jody Howard, general manager of Cat’s Industrial & Waste Group, a recently formed strategic business unit within Cat, adding Exodus machines to Cat’s product line will allow Cat to give a new level of attention to industrial and waste customers. “It is an exciting opportunity for us here at Caterpillar to get focused on these waste and industrial customers, who for some time hadn’t really focused our attention,” she said during a teleconference announcing the alliance.

Bill Springer, vice president of Cat and leader of its Diversified Products Division, which the Industrial & Waste Group falls under, discussed why partnering with Exodus was such a good fit for both companies.

“It was pretty obvious they had a product; we had a product gap,” Springer said. “Exodus didn’t have a distribution system; we have a distribution system. So there were some pretty logical reasons why we began to talk. We started talking and realizing we could create a separate business unit around this.”

Bruce Bacon, president of Exodus Machines, said the material handlers his company produces have been so widely embraced by the scrap industry, allying with Cat will be beneficial for customers. “When Exodus made a decision to design and manufacture innovative, world-class industrial swing machines just a few short years ago, our mission was to incorporate safety and performance, efficiency, ease of maintenance and durability into our designs,” said Bacon. “At the same time, we really wanted to have a continuation of the relationship in the scrap industry that had been built over the years. The market response has been gratifying and the product performance has resulted in accelerated market acceptance; and that brings us to today.”

Bacon continued, “From our perspective, the strength of Caterpillar’s leadership position and distribution, manufacturing and commitment to customer support combined with Exodus’ ability to create innovative, advanced designs really results in an alliance that delivers a superior value proposition to our current and future customers.”

During the first year of the alliance, the Exodus brand will remain. The product will be transitioned to the Cat brand within the next 12 to 18 months, Howard said. While the machines will be available in North America initially, Howard said, “As we move forward through the Cat brand, they will become available to more Cat dealers worldwide.”

In addition, there are plans to introduce more Exodus models within the next year. “We are aggressively developing and designing additional models to fill a variety of sizes and configurations for the market,” Bacon said.

Springer noted that, in the past, Cat had not been in the large material handling business. “That is why this alliance with Exodus is absolutely a perfect match—they have the product we don’t have, and we have the distribution system that they didn’t have.”

Exodus’ machines will complement Cat’s current line of wheeled and tracked material handlers greater than 25 metric tons.

A news release issued by Cat indicates the company acquired a minority equity interest in a new entity, Exodus Machines LLC, formed by Exodus.