Empire Southwest, headquartered in Mesa, Arizona, has been named Equipment World’s 2024 Big Iron Dealer of the Year.
The family-owned Caterpillar dealership was founded in 1950 in Pendelton, Oregon, and has grown to more than 30 locations and 4,500 employees in Arizona, Nevada and parts of California.
When founder Jack Whiteman got started, he was trading mules for tractors and the Cat product line only consisted of six machines. In 1959, he was awarded the Caterpillar territory in Arizona and moved Empire to Phoenix. In 2022, Empire acquired Cashman Equipment combining two family-owned Cat dealers and growing its service territory and employee base by over 30%. Today, the company is run by Jack’s grandson and third-generation owner, Jeff Whiteman.
In addition to Cat equipment, Empire sells, rents and services heavy equipment, tractors, power, and pump generation equipment to clients in the construction, mining, energy, agricultural, and industrial sectors. Technology and equipment brands offered include Trimble, Tier 1, AGCO, Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Claas, Rogator, Terragator, Thunder Creek Equipment, Trail King, Universal Truck Body, Murray Trailers, Side Dump Industries, Maintainer, Epiroc, Paladin, Woods, Rockland, Road Widener and more.
The dealership has also expanded to offer fluid analysis services, undercarriage rebuilds, hydraulic services, operator training and SITECH technology services to help clients with needs in other business areas.
Equipment World will take a closer look inside Empire Cat in a coming article. Now in its seventh year, the Big Iron Dealer of the Year award is designed to honor dealers of all sizes for excellence in meeting customer needs, employing technology and addressing the sales, rental, parts and service requirements of today’s contractors.
Past Dealer of the Year winners have included Alta Equipment (2018), Carolina Cat (2019), Front Range Kubota (2020), West Side Tractor Sales (2021), ASCO (2022) and Gregory Poole Cat (2023).
Empire Southwest
