Toro to restart Stone production soon

The Toro Company aims to be producing Stone Construction Equipment machines at Stone's Honeoye facility in New Jersey in the "near term" before switching production to its existing facilities in Nebraska and Minnesota.

Toro told IRN that it hoped to offer many of the former Stone employees work at the Honeoye facility through the Summer and Autumn of this year before moving production to its own facilities. It said Stone employees had been notified that there may be opportunities to relocate to Toro plants.

Branden Happel, Toro's press spokesman, told IRN that a top priority now was "working with vendors to get parts in the plant and contacting customers to deal with back orders."

Toro has yet to decide on its branding strategy, said Mr Happel; "How we brand/market these products going forward will be determined during the integration phase. No decisions have yet been made."

The company confirmed that it was now handling warranty and product support for Stone machines already in the field.

Mr Happel said the rental sector was important to Toro and that the acquisition of Stone's product assets was "another step in helping expand our position in the rental market. This not only complements our line of trenchers and versatile compact utility loaders, but builds upon our recent acquisitions of tree care and turf renovation product lines to better meet the needs of our customers."

In late April Toro acquired all product assets of Stone, including units in inventory, product designs, intellectual property and tooling. Stone's product range included concrete and mortar mixers, material handlers, compaction equipment and other concrete power tools.