Ditch Witch President: "Fairly Bullish" Outlook
If seeing the seven or eight new products introduced at the ICUEE Show wasn’t enough to suggest Ditch Witch was seeing opportunity, the company’s president, Dennis Wierzbicki, made it very clear: “We have a fairly bullish outlook on the market,” he said, pointing out that the company has “a year-to-date (sales) increase in the double digits.”
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| Ditch Witch president Dennis Wierzbicki addresses editors at a press conference held at the ICUEE Show. |
Wierzbicki, who has been with the company about nine months, has an engineering background and gives every impression that he appreciates machinery – including the 850 hp Super Witch that revved up and popped wheelies to launch the company’s press conference.
The new product launches show that Ditch Witch is on a progressive track and that “we are extremely passionate about our customer focus,” using customer input to drive new product development. “While some companies focus on becoming a lower cost producer, we work to differentiate by changing and enhancing our products, and developing new products all based on our focus on the customer. We’re obsessed with that,” he stated.
He noted that while areas outside the U.S. are struggling, domestic business has been strong for Ditch Witch. He sees home construction continuing to grow along with the utility infrastructure that feeds it. They’re also tracking growth in the telecom market to get fiber into the home. He says some predict it could be a decade-long growth opportunity.
While several of the new products were targeted direct to larger utility customers, the rental channel still receives plenty of attention, he said. “While there are different factors affecting growth in different parts of the country -- regional differences in overall construction activity and movement through the rental channel -- overall we see it as strong and continuing to be strong.”
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