American Augers drills and Trencor trenchers will retain their brand identities as they are incorporated into The Charles Machine Works (CMW) fold, says Tiffany Sewell-Howard, CEO.
“American Augers (AA) will remain a separate entity, similar to our HammerHead acquisition, and production of Trencor products will be moved to the AA facility in Ohio,” said Sewell-Howard in an interview with Equipment World.
CMW, known for the Ditch Witch brand, bought the two lines from Astec Industries, in a $55 million deal expected to be finalized by the end of this year.
“For the past several years, we’ve focused on our vision of becoming the CMW family of companies, the authority in the underground construction business. This addition is a great step towards that vision,” Sewell-Howard says. “We want to address all the needs of the underground market.”
The deal gives CMW high horsepower models in both trenchers and drills. The largest current Ditch Witch trencher is the 115-horsepower RT115. Trencor models range from the 250-horsepower T765 to the 1,300-horsepower T1860.
On the drill side, American Auger models start at the 60,000-pound max pullback DD-6, and top off at the 1.1-million-pound max pullback DD-1100. Ditch Witch’s current largest model is the 100,000-pound JT100. “We see tremendous growth in the pipeline and water and sewer markets, which require large machines,” Sewell-Howard says.
CMW plans to keep the American Augers facility in West Salem, Ohio, and transfer the Trencor line, now manufactured in Tennessee, to the Ohio plant. Also retained: the direct-to-market sales approach of both lines.
