Toro (company)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Toro Company | |
 |
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| Type | Public (NYSE: TTC) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1919 |
| Headquarters | Bloomington, Minnesota |
| Key people | Michael J. Hoffman, President and CEO Kendrick Melrose. Chairman of the Board |
| Industry | Lawn maintenance |
| Products | Consumer and Commercial Lawn equipment |
| Revenue |  US$1.779 Billion (2005) |
| Employees | 5,200 (full-time)[1] |
| Slogan | Count on it. |
| Website | www.toro.com |
The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC) is an American manufacturer of lawnmowers and other lawn care tools based in Bloomington, Minnesota. Founded as the Toro Motor Company in 1914[2], it serves professionals and businesses such as landscapers, golf course managers, and grounds and sports field managers, as well as individual homeowners. Although the company manufactures a wide variety of lawn maintenance equipment, in recent years it has come to dominate the golf course irrigation market [3].
In the 1990s, then CEO Kendrick Melrose (currently Chairman of the Board), figured out that supplying 'professional maintenance markets' (such as golf courses, municipal parks, cemeteries and gated communities) yielded higher margins and offered more protection from the uncertainty of the weather than selling to retail customers. Today, roughly two-thirds of Toro's $1.6 billion in sales come from the professional market, versus one-third back in 1990.
The company's products are marketed under several brands:
- Toro – consumer and professional lawnmowers, snowblowers, trimmers, leaf blowers, and irrigation systems
- Exmark – professional lawnmowers
- Lawn-Boy – consumer lawnmowers
- Irritrol Systems – professional light-duty irrigation
- Lawn Genie – consumer irrigation
- Pope (Australia) – consumer irrigation
[edit] References
- ^ Employees, Number of Employees
- ^ The Toro Company History, History 1910-1919
- ^ Toro Golf Course Irrigation, Golf Course Irrigation dominations
[edit] External links
| Minnesota-based Corporations |
|---|
| Minnesota-based Fortune 500 Corporations (by size): Target Corporation | UnitedHealth Group | Best Buy | Travelers | 3M | Supervalu | U.S. Bancorp | Northwest Airlines | CHS | General Mills | Medtronic | Xcel Energy | Land O'Lakes | Thrivent Financial for Lutherans | C. H. Robinson Worldwide | Hormel | Nash Finch | Ecolab | The Mosaic Company |
| Minnesota-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size): Companies listed above, plus PepsiAmericas | Bemis Company | Pentair | St. Jude Medical | Alliant Techsystems | Valspar | Patterson Companies | Minnesota Life | Regis Corporation | Polaris Industries | Toro | Deluxe Corporation | Donaldson Company | Fastenal | H.B. Fuller | Federated Mutual Insurance | Ceridian |
| Major Minnesota-based non-public or externally owned corporations (alphabetically): Andersen Windows | Cargill | Carlson Companies | Dairy Queen | Musicland | Schwan Food Company |
