Toro Mowers
American manufacturer The Toro Company based in Bloomington, Minnesota has been manufacturing Toro mowers since 1914. The company was originally founded as the Toro Motor Company building tractor engines for the Bull Tractor Company. Today Toro is a world leader in it’s field and one of the most recognized brand names (not to mention the famous red Toro logo) in the landscaping and turf maintenance industry.
Toro along with their complete line of turf maintenance equipment from leaf blowers to zero turn mowers also manufactures precision water saving irrigation systems for both commercial and residential applications.
Beginning in 1986, Toro started acquiring several companies related to the turf maintenance industry that would eventually set the company on a path of becoming a world leader in their field. Their first acquisition was Wheel Horse Product Division from AMC (American Motors)… who was manufacturing a wide range of lawn and garden tractors, as well as riding lawn mowers. AMC was into just about everything at one time or another…
1989 they acquired one of their competitor’s Lawn-Boy and then 1997 another mower manufacturer in Exmark Manufacturing and also Hayter Ltd., manufacturer of commercial and residential mowers in the UK. Today these brand name products are still being manufactured as part of The Toro Company… Exmark, Lawn-Boy, Irritrol, Lawn Genie, Pope and Hayter.
Toro also looked to increase their presence in turf irrigation products by acquiring James Hardie Irrigation Systems in 1996. The following decade in 2005 they continued their quest of irrigation companies with the purchase of Rain Master Irrigation Systems.
During the 90′s while continuing with these acquisitions, the company changed their business model to focus more on the commercial side of their business. Their main focus became servicing the professional turf management market… golf courses, municipal parks, stadiums, commercial properties.
In 2007 this led the company to purchase Turf Guard, wireless technology used primarily for golf courses that uses buried sensors in the turf that is designed to measure moisture in the soil, salinity and temperature and then transmit that data to a Web-based system.
It’s the high tech solution for course managers to know exactly how to maintain the turf and at the same time save water with precise watering schedules, fertilization and pre-emergent herbicide applications. In 2009 they purchased Tycrop Manufacturing Ltd. a leading brand of golf and sports field maintenance equipment. The latest purchase was just recently in 2010 of USPraxis, Inc. specializing in tree stump removal equipment.
Toro’s History, the video…
Today homeowners, landscape contractors (myself included… now retired after 18 yrs in the business), turf and landscape maintenance crews, landscape architects, just about anyone who maintains a lawn commercial or residential has used or is currently using Toro products.
Dependability, reliability, durability is the best way to describe Toro Mowers and as you have read one thing can most definitely be said when it comes to lawn maintenance… Toro knows their Turf!
Click on the links below to see prices and availability for these Toro Mowers.
