SouthStar unchanged after Komatsu purchase

IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR THE TEAM AT SOUTHSTAR IN New Zealand following the purchase of the company by Komatsu.

Komatsu Ltd, which owns the Komatsu Forest division, acquired the Quadco and SouthStar forestry attachment operations of Quebec-based Prenbec Equipment Inc in a surprise move last month.

The agreement, which excludes the forestry equipment businesses of Tanguay and Forespro de-limbers, sees the Quadco felling heads and SouthStar large harvester heads added to the existing lines of Log Max and Komatsu small and medium-sized harvester heads.

In a statement, Komatsu says the move will make the company an industry leader in forestry attachments, enabling it to offer customers a full range.

Quadco and SouthStar will continue to operate as independent companies within the Komatsu group following the completion of the acquisition and will maintain their existing sales networks.

This was confirmed to NZ Logger magazine by Jeremy Disher, SouthStar’s Design Engineer, who is based in New Zealand.

“The purchase by Komatsu doesn’t affect the day-to-day operations of SouthStar, it’s very much business as usual,” he says.

SouthStar was originally formed nine years ago in New Zealand by a group of investors, including former Waratah founder, Dave Cochrane, before being sold to the Canadians. With increased investment, the product line was overhauled and the new SouthStar heads captured a large part of the North American market, using castings made in New Zealand and shipped to Canada for final assembly.

Since last year, final assembly of SouthStar heads sold in both the New Zealand and Australian markets has been carried out at the company’s recently completed factory in Rotorua.

While no outward changes have taken place, a forestry attachment division within Komatsu Forest AB will be formed to manage the Quadco, SouthStar and Log Max brands.