Triad Machinery
Specialty: Sales, rentals, parts and service for logging and construction equipment
Triad Machinery has traditionally focused on providing equipment for the logging industry, but in recent years it has beefed up the construction side. President Kristine Gittins said 40 percent of Triad’s business now comes from construction equipment.
Rising costs The Portland-based firm has offices in Eugene, Ore.,Spokane and Tacoma and is expanding into Bend, Ore., and north Seattle. Gittins said Triad’s sales of log loaders and other forestry equipment grew about 10 percent last year. With lumber prices up, “private landowners are wanting to clear stuff off now that they can make a good profit,” she said. “If timber’s being harvested, somebody’s buying log loaders.”
She said equipment manufacturers and dealers have been unable to pass along all of the price increases to their customers. “The market just won’t bear it,” she said. “We’ve actually decreased our margins. With a wide shortage of equipment, you’d think you’d be seeing margins increase.” Interest rate worries While Gittins said she expects continued growth, the prospect of rising interest rates does concern her. “We carry a lot of inventory, there’s financing that goes with that,” she said. Gittins said people are often surprised to see a woman at the helm of an 85-person heavy-equipment firm. But she said her gender hasn’t hurt her career in equipment sales, and it may have helped a little. “It’s a conversation opener,” she said.
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