Tigercat in South Africa

PARIS, ON, September 22, 2005 - Tigercat has entered the South African forestry equipment market in conjunction with its new distributor Afrequip, headed by Allen Rutherfoord. Afrequip is a partnership between Rutherfoord and Latin Equipment which already represents Tigercat in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The Tigercat-Afrequip agreement was announced at a July 8 meeting in Sabie in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Attended by forestry stakeholders, foresters and forestry contractors, the purpose of the meeting was to introduce the Canadian and South African role-players in Tigercat.

According to Andy Bays, a forestry engineer and one of the senior partners of Latin Equipment, "Latin Equipment has along with Rutherfoord Group invested in the South African dealership called Afrequip because it sees opportunities in the local forestry market and is able to provide extremely competitive cost per cubic metre solutions for a range of applications."

Afrequip is well positioned to provide excellent customer service. Rutherfoord explains his plan of action. "Tigercat Canada pride themselves on support. They have a comprehensive training school, so the people who join us will be sent to Canada for one month for intensive product training. In the interim, Tigercat are setting up a local infrastructure to supply their products and services here. Afrequip will stock parts and will continue to provide local product support. We have a coastal chainsaw network and a twenty-five year history. We also have numbers of forestry clients and know the industry."

Rutherfoord concluded, "The combination of Tigercat and Afrequip represents a breakthrough in forestry and timber handling machinery in our part of the world." 

About Tigercat

Tigercat Industries designs and manufactures premium quality forestry and off-road equipment with manufacturing facilities in Canada and Sweden and world-wide distribution. The diverse forestry line includes complete full-tree and cut-to-length harvesting systems.

Tigercat and the Tigercat logo are registered trademarks of Tigercat Industries Inc. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright (c) 2001-2005 Tigercat Industries Inc.

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(L-R) Allen Rutherfoord, Afrequip; Andy Bays and Frans Misdorpe, Latin Group SA
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For more information, contact:

Paul Iarocci, Tigercat Industries Inc.
519-442-1529 Ext. 314
piarocci@tigercat.com

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