Wajax and Hitachi Construction Machinery Loaders America have announced that as of March 1, 2022, the companies will expand their existing Canadian direct distribution relationship to include construction excavators, mining equipment and related aftermarket parts.
The shift comes in the wake of an announcement that Hitachi and John Deere will dissolve their joint venture for manufacturing and marketing of excavators in the North American market, with an end date of February 28, 2022.
The expansion of the direct relationship between Wajax and Hitachi is expected to strengthen the competitive positioning of both companies in the Canadian construction and mining markets.
"Hitachi is Wajax's largest manufacturing business partner and a very important contributor to our strategy," said Mark Foote, president and CEO of Wajax. "We are very pleased that our direct relationship will be significantly strengthened. Working directly with our partners at Hitachi will provide Wajax with enhanced access to product development and improved market responsiveness. We look forward to building on this already strong partnership in the core markets of construction and mining, as well as in additional areas in the future."
Simon Wilson, vice president of sales with Hitachi, noted that Wajax is one of the company's largest and most successful independent distributors and that their partnership has extended for more than 20 years.
"The Canadian market is key to Hitachi's strategy, and we look forward to the benefits of an expanded direct relationship with Wajax as our national construction and mining partner. We believe this change will increase our market share by providing customers with products that lead the market in terms of value, performance and reliability," Wilson said.
