Champion road graders have quite a history. The first Champion road graders were horse-drawn. When it became possible to make self propelled road graders, Champion made the first ones. When hydraulics came onto the scene, Champion was the first to improve their machines with the new technology. With operations in both Canada and the United States, Champion was a solid company shipping graders all over the world to almost a hundred countries.
Then it was sold to Volvo Construction Group in 1997. Although the promise was "No jobs will be lost," the Goderich plant was closed by the end of 2009. I believe the original operations in the States have also been lost.
Then in 2014, in a move to cut costs, the Volvo Group discontinued production of motor graders as well as backhoes at its Shippensburg facility. Production of both lines was transferred to Volvo Construction Equipment’s Chinese subsidiary. The Shippensburg facility produced its first motor grader only about four years ago earlier when the motor grader line was moved to Pennsylavania from Ontario.
The end result of all the opening and closing of plants was the loss of about 1,000 jobs in four countries, Poland, the US, Brazil and Canada.
1 comment:
All while lining the pockets of the shareholders.
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