John Deere Announces Niche Equipment Line

Featuring a John Deere green appearance with gray and black trim and accents, Frontier equipment will be manufactured by outside suppliers, shipped directly to John Deere dealers and sold under the John Deere Frontier Equipment name. The first suppliers to manufacture Frontier Equipment products are Woods Equipment Co. and Attachment Technologies Inc. (ATI).

Feedback from its dealer network helped Deere recognize the need for certain specialty equipment items that were not already part of its equipment line, explained Barry Nelson, manger of public relations for Deere. Therefore, Deere chose to partner with companies to fulfill specific niche markets. "This is a way to provide an economical product line, such as blades, mowers or other items that we can’t justify building a factory to produce," said Nelson. "If we can reach a good agreement [with suppliers] that is competitive in price, the Frontier Equipment line offers a way for a dealer to fill that product line."

"Frontier will be a line of good quality implements and attachments," noted Jerry Burau, manager, Frontier Equipment Marketing. "They will be compatible, safe and easy to use with a variety of John Deere products and will provide customers a great value for the dollar. And, as the Frontier line becomes established, we will add more and larger equipment in the future."

Woods will offer a line of three-point hitch, landscaping and grooming equipment as part of Frontier Equipment. "Woods Equipment Co. has a variety of equipment that works well to complement the John Deere line, " said Burau.

Additionally, ATI’s entrance into Frontier Equipment includes a variety of attachments for the John Deere 3000 Series Telehandlers, including pallet movers, forks and material grabbers.

For dealers, Deere has developed a new ordering system using a Web-based business-to-business marketplace to improve its ordering and shipment efficiencies. Deere dealers will use the online system to place orders for Frontier products, which will be shipped directly to the dealers from the manufacturers.

Nelson explained that additional offerings under the Frontier Equipment line will be added as new partnerships develop and as market needs are identified. "If there’s a demand for products out there, Frontier is going to try to meet that need to help supplement our dealers’ lines," he said.