Champion Motor Graders new VP of Sales & Marketing

[Motor Grader]

Attention Dealers, Vendors, Co-Workers, and Friends.

I am very pleased to announce that Marvin (Woody) Ferrell, currently Vice President of Remarketing with Volvo Construction Equipment will join Champion Motor Graders as our new Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Woody's official start date is July 25th.

Woody, before coming to Volvo in 2000 was a District Manager for Carolina Tractor. Woody is the kind of person you make an immediate connection with. He immediately understood the value of the Champion Compact Motor Grader line and what it could mean for dealers and contractors alike. I knew deep down the day the Abernathy family reacquired the product line from Volvo Construction Equipment that one day we would try to convince Woody to become an integral part of our organization. I am proud to say that day has arrived.

As many of you know, over the last 8 years Woody has successfully lead various Sales & Marketing initiatives for several different product lines within Volvo and most recently was Vice President responsible for Remarketing Volvo Construction Equipment. His experience and existing working relationship with the majority of our Dealer Network will enable him to really hit the ground running.

There will be a transition period as I shift my current responsibilities to Woody. However, we have created a short term action plan for our target markets.

US and Canada
Woody will immediately be contacting each dealer organization to familiarize himself with the current working relationship between you and Champion. We are developing a business plan based around that current position along with future growth expectations. Woody will be communicating this to all of you. Woody and I will be working together to ensure a smooth transition. As well, we will begin bringing everyone up to speed on the new Production Class Graders that we unveiled at ConExpo. This exciting new product has grabbed the attention of the market place and we know that you are going to love what you see with this new product.

International
In order to allow Woody to focus on the North American market, I will continue to work very closely with all existing international relationships. Woody and I will be working very closely together so although he will be focusing very hard on North America, he will have the opportunity to begin to create a relationship with our existing international dealers. This will allow us to present an integrated approach to the market place and to ensure his transition to be a part of any existing and future opportunities. I am looking forward to capitalizing on his background and experience in this area. Eventually, Woody's territory will be called "global".

As for myself, I will be taking on the position of Executive Vice President for the business. I am committed to the growth and longevity of this company. In conversations with Gary (my Dad and President of Champion Motor Graders, for those that do not know the Abernathy family) I feel that it is the right time for me to work closer with him to better prepare myself for the challenges ahead of me. I love this business and I love the industry we work in. Gary is far from slowing down and my intent is to run this business line as he would and take advantage of his knowledge and expertise. This will allow him to focus on the bigger picture and new initiatives that will keep Champion Motor Graders the vibrant and growing organization we have become under his leadership.

I know that you all join me in welcoming Woody and the organizational changes that we have in store for all of us. This is a very exciting time to be part of this company. We look forward to all of you being part of a growing and bright future with a true Champion team.

Thanks,
Bryan Abernathy

 

[euclid]

Free ball caps and product stickers for everyone!

:idea

 

[ovrszd]

Free ball caps and product stickers for everyone!

:idea

Yeah right......

 

[euclid]

Yeah right......

I tired:slomo and it seems as if it feel on deaf ears:sleeping

 

[Motor Grader]

Free Hats

I tired:slomo and it seems as if it feel on deaf ears:sleeping

If anyone on here really wants a Champion hat for their collection then email me your address.

 

[euclid]

If anyone on here really wants a Champion hat for their collection then email me your address.

Thanks alot I appreciate it and I'll wear the heck out of it just because you don't see as many Champion as we see JD and Cat.
r/
euclid

 

[digger242j]

If anyone on here really wants a Champion hat for their collection then email me your address.

As of this post, this thread has 152 views, which is probably only a few more than when you posted that, Bryan.

I'll be interested to see how many hats per additional thread view you have to send out from here forward.

I'll also add that I think it's only fair that if you request a hat from Bryan, you should wear it out in the field, and not just hang it on your wall.

Also, congratulations to Woody, Bryan, and everyone else at Champion. I'm sure I'm not speaking just for myself when I wish you continued growth and success... :thumbsup

 

[buddy605]

Stupid question

What is the relationship between volvo and champion are they together or apart is champinion an upstart from the old champion. Are thay using the old dealers what is the story.

 

[digger242j]

Bryan went into some detail about Champion's history in this thread. Start at post #58 for the details.

 

[buddy605]

Thanks Digger

thanks for the info, was courious even with the new champions getting more common and volvo'e around.

 

[buddy605]

Compact graders

Was on a site here today and they had a compact grader. The operator always ran big cats. 140's mostly and he was loving the small champion for grading aroud the building and it was a save on the handwork. I bet that company will be getting more compact and less large ones. The old hand was impressed and I spent alot of time in the cab with him to tune him on grade laser.

 

[ovrszd]

hat

If anyone on here really wants a Champion hat for their collection then email me your address.

Email sent. Thank you very much for the offer!!!

 

[euclid]

Actually I did that initially as a joke, and it actualy took off and being in aviation safety I will wear the hat. I wanna say thanks to Bryan for steppin up to the call.
Cheers and again best of success in your new position. Although I wish they had stickers so I could put one on my tool box.
:usa

 

[Motor Grader]

I'll back up to 1980 when we (my family) started the Lee Motor Grader which was a small hydrostatic compact size grader. We sold our family business to Champion Road Machinery which produced all the larger graders that you are used to seeing around the country. We continued to work for Champion and in 1997 Volvo bought Champion which included us. So we were Volvo until 2004 when Volvo decided to divest the compact grader only. My Dad bought he product line back and acquired the Champion trademark. So we are a totally seperate company from Volvo now. However, the majority of our North American distribution is with dealers that carry the Volvo line. We also maintain a very good relationship with Volvo as we have many friends there.

 

[buddy605]

Cool

Seems that you were fortunate that they were getting out of the compact grader sector they seem to be on the grow. I actually got to take one out for a spin today after seeing this on the forum. I do not get much play time (in the equipment), that is the worst thing about being a tech.

 

[Motor Grader]

I'd like to hear more from the operator. We do job stories and to find someone that actually runs both large and small graders is hard to come by. To be honest, most big grader operator's don't like stepping down to a compact grader. When we find these guys we like to put their name in print. Its good for the customer and good for us.

 

[Grader4me]

I've never had the opportunity to operate a compact grader. Given the chance I wouldn't hesitate to try one though. I've seen some nice work turned out by them.

 

[buddy605]

That transmission is something to get use too. But other than thatit is close to the same. Don't know if it was a friday machine but bearings are an issue with the machine I was playing with. With that being said they still have bought a new one again this year.

 

[Deas Plant]

Compacts and REAL graders

Hi, Folks.
I dunno if it sometimes seems as if I'm playing the old song, "I've been everywhere", but, amongst many other things, I have run both standard(?) and compact(?) graders. Cat 12's and on up amongst the standard graders, right up to a 42-ton O&K G350. On the compact end, I've run A-C DD graders, Galion 503's, a Mitsubishi MG100 and a Fiat-Allis 65B with an auto-trans, all around the 8-9 ton mark.

I LIKE operating and it mostly doesn't matter what it is, if it burns diesel fuel, makes noise and moves dirt, I'm usually happy. I enjoyed operating each of the above smaller machines for a variety of reasons. The Galion 503's were/are a pretty robust little jigger with very few problem areas except that the little 6-cyl. IH diesel was a mongrel to start when it thought it was cold and it only had to be stopped for around 1/2 an hour on a warm day for it to start thinking it was cold again. All-hydraulic controls made it a lot less effort to operate than many Cat 12's of the day. Vision was adequate but could have been better.

The A-C DD was similar in many ways to the Galion 503 but didn't have the same drive power or robustness built into the circle reverse. It would not turn the circle under a load that the Galion circle reverse would laugh at. The steering components were a little lighter in construction than the Galion 503 too and the A-C's would not take the same punishment in that area that the Galions would. Vision was about the same as the Galion and again, all-hydraulic controls made life a little easier.

The Fiat-Allis 65B with its auto-trans - no clutch pedal - was easier to drive than either of the above and the weak points of the A-C DD seemed to have been remedied. It was a good, solid performer and, with a rear ripper had pretty fair traction too, although none of these three machines excelled in mud or wet going. What really does except all-wheel drive?

The Mitsubishi MG100 was the only articulated compact machine that I have run. It was also power-shift. It had better vision than any of the 3 above and could put its grunt on the ground fairly well too. All of these compact graders had both blade lift levers under the right hand but the MG100 seemed to have less rhyme and reason to the placement of the rest of the grader control levers than the other 3 machines. It was somewhat less 'intuitive' than the other 3. It was the heaviest and most powerful of the small/compact graders that I have run at around 9 tons to the 8 tons of the rest of them and so is probably in a slightly different class than the others.

Of these 4 machines, I think my favourite would be the Fiat-Allis 65B. It seemed to have a good, solid feel about it and was reasonably user-friendly, gave very little trouble and you could usually see where you had been at the end of a day.

Just my 0.02.

Bryan, if you want to mail one of your graders to me DownUnder, I'll happily try it out and let you know what I think of it. LOL.

 

[euclid]

Rt 360 in Virginia

I finally got a shot of this old pull blade in in Virginia. Those posters living in the Northern Neck might have seen this old piece on RT 360.