Caterpillar: A Short History

Caterpillar, an American company founded in 1925 by the merger of Holt Manufacturing Company and C. L. Best Tractor Company. Being the world’s largest construction equipment manufacturer, it manufacturers machinery from as small as a mini-excavator, to the largest dozers and scrapers.

Initially Holt, the founder of the company, had began with tractors, finding a solution to a problem he had with traction in a muddy field. He tried widening the tyre to no avail, largely due to cost, however, working with timber planks he made what we know today as the track, which provides an unbelievable amount of traction, which we see today on excavators and dozers.

Caterpillar saw it big during the first world war, where their tractors were able to plough through the fields with ease carrying artillery and supplies, and eventually becoming a major artillery tractor to move larger guns.

After the war was troublesome for Caterpillar, due to their military contract abruptly ending, and as they had developed many larger tractors for the battlefield, however, these were unsuitable for farmers due to their sheer size. To add to their problems, after the war all the ex-military equipment was shipped back home, only to depress the market of new tractors with all the ex-military second hand gear from war.

Their primary competitor as this time, C. L. Best Tractor Company received government funding to be able to continue developing smaller tractors for the farmers, which allowed them a stronghold on the market, which Caterpillar didn’t have due to their focus on their military contract. The brokerage house that funded their competition was approached by Caterpillar, due to their poor financial position, and recommended the above two company to merge, forming the Caterpillar Tractor Co. in 1925.

From here the company grew at a very strong pace, being able to develop tractors of all sizes, and their sales grew quite remarkably, with sales of $52.8M in 1929, and continuing strong throughout the great depression of the 1930s.

From this point the company grew and expanded, started acquiring other assets to improve and add to their fleet, eventually moving into the earthmoving equipment we primarily know of today. Caterpillar has manufactured their equipment in Brazil since 1960 and continue to do so, and provide a solid, reliable machine, that gets the job done.