Yanmar Unveils New Compact Equipment Portfolio at CONEXPO

Japanese engine manufacturer Yanmar has announced the unification of its ASV and Yanmar Compact Equipment portfolios of compact track loader portfolios.

The unification creates “one of the most versatile CTL lineups in the industry,” according to Yanmar. The newly-created product portfolio brings together both Yanmar’s ASV Posi-Track branded undercarriage technology, as well as the steel-embedded track systems. Officials say the changes will enable customers to select the platform that their terrain and application call for.

“We are preserving what makes ASV innovative and bringing it forward under Yanmar to give dealers and customers one clear story and one stronger presence in the market as One Yanmar,” says Anna Christine Sgro, president of Yanmar Compact Equipment North America.

The move has been a long time coming, representatives say, with ASV’s Posi-Track branding joining Yanmar’s corporate ranks in 2019. As part of the company’s North American branding strategy, the compact tracker loaders incorporating ASV’s technology will transition to Yanmar Red, officials say. This change “creating a unified product identity while maintaining the performance characteristics customers have relied on for decades.”

Two lineups under one roof

The unification offers Yanmar Compact Equipment a unique opportunity, putting two fundamentally different track systems under one CTL portfolio. Officials say the lineup covers a wide range of horsepower classes and applications, with markets spanning from landscraping, to land management, to utilities and agriculture.

The firm’s new strategy “builds on Yanmar’s established leadership in award-winning mini excavators” and expands its reach in the compact equipment market, the company says. The lineup now includes compact track loaders, mini excavators, compact wheel loaders, tracked carriers and others.

“We’ve proven our market leadership in mini excavators, and now we’re focused on leading in the compact track loader category,” Sgro adds. “Our goal is simple — to deliver a complete compact equipment portfolio that provides more choice, performance, and uptime for our customers.”

Sgro and the company say that Yanmar has invested more than $32 million in automation, innovation, and manufacturing technology since acquiring the ASV technology seven years ago. This move reinforces the Japanese company’s commitment to manufacturing and innovation on North American soil, officials add, as Yanmar plans to invest an additional $30 million to further expand both capability and capacity.

The company gave a first look at the new portfolio and a few machines at this year’s CONEXPO-CON/AGG trade show, March 3-7 in Las Vegas.

“These new machines incorporate ASV Posi-Track technology with a fully suspended torsion-axle undercarriage engineered to improve stability, digging performance, and material retention when operating on soft or uneven terrain,” the firm says.