Doosan Bobcat

Doosan Bobcat announced on September 9 that it was due to launch the ZTR Mower,* which has been upgraded with the company’s unique design characteristics, for the North American market as part of its efforts to make inroads into the global Turf & Landscape market. It plans to introduce the new product through its strong dealer network, and also expects significant synergistic effects on the sales of its flagship compact construction equipment.

*Zero-turn Mower (ZTR Mower): Equipped with zero-turn (zero turning radius) technology, zero-turn riding lawn mowers boast unrivalled performance efficiency compared to existing lawn mowers.

Doosan Bobcat entered the GME market last year by acquiring the zero-turn mower business unit of Schiller Ground Care, a renowned American lawn and landscape equipment manufacturer. North America’s zero-turn mower market records sales of at about 810,000 units per year, worth some US$4.8 billion (about 5.7 trillion won), showing a steady average annual growth rate of 7.8% over the past five years. Doosan Bobcat originally planned to launch its zero-turn mowers, equipped with the company’s unique design characteristics, towards the end of the year, but it has succeeded in advancing the schedule by as much as three months thanks to its faster-than-expected success with the PMI (post-merger integration) process and other efforts to enhance the product.

On the back of its high brand awareness and strong dealer network in the North American market, Doosan Bobcat aims to stabilize its market position as early as possible in order to achieve 100 billion won in sales in 2020 and more than double the figure by 2024.

An executive of Doosan Bobcat said, “The North American landscape market has shown a relatively stable growth trend as demand among farmers who grow plants or crops as a hobby has steadily grown despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” adding, “We will also seek to maximize our synergistic effects on the sales of our existing construction equipment by continuing to expand our GME (compact farming and landscaping equipment) lineup.**

**GME (ground maintenance equipment) refers to compact farming and landscaping equipment.

Doosan Bobcat has been accelerating its GME business since 2019, selling more than 1,700 compact tractors in the first half of 2020 in the North American market after launching the models there in September 2019. The company’s other GME products - including mini track loaders (MTLs) and utility vehicles (UVs) - have also shown steady growth in the market. Overall, Doosan Bobcat recorded GME sales of about US$140 million, an increase of more than 200% over the preceding year, in the North American market during the first half of 2020.