Park Jeongwon, Chairman and CEO of Doosan Group, went to the U.S. to check on Doosan Bobcat’s management strategy. Last year, Chairman Park congratulated the Doosan Bobcat employees for achieving record-breaking performance, saying, “The market is tough this year, but it’s the very reason why we need to develop cutting-edge technologies and gain market share before others by making bold investments with confidence.”
Doosan announced on March 19 that Doosan Group Chairman and CEO Park Jeongwon, Doosan Group Vice Chairman Park Jiwon, and Doosan Bobcat Vice Chairman Scott Park went to the CONEXPO 2023 held in Las Vegas, U.S., to survey the status of the global construction equipment market and discuss Doosan Bobcat’s management strategy for this year.
CONEXPO, one of the three largest building and construction trade shows in the world, is held in the U.S. every three years. This year, the event was held from March 14 to 18 at the Las Vegas Convention Center with the participation of more than 1,800 companies worldwide. At the event, Doosan Bobcat set up a 2,043-square-meter booth to show their new products and upgraded technologies as well as concept products armed with the latest technologies in automation and unmanned systems.
Doosan Bobcat drew the attention of the visitors by presenting their all-electric and unmanned concept loader named ‘Rogue X’ for the first time. Free of carbon emissions and very quiet, Rogue X can be used at construction sites that are either too dangerous or contaminated for human operators. Also showcased was the S7X, which was applied with the all-electric track loader T7X, which won the CES 2022 Innovation Award.
After visiting Doosan Bobcat’s booth and checking the products and technologies on display, Chairman Park said, “Doosan Bobcat has the DNA to innovate, as it was the world’s first company to develop a skid loader and also the world’s first company to introduce an all-electric loader,” adding, “We will dominate the market with technologies that go beyond the boundaries of the industry.”
At the booth, Chairman Park gave the “2023 Doosan Management Award” to the employees of Doosan Bobcat USA, including Michael Ballweber, president of the North America Branch, who achieved a record-breaking performance last year, and presented them with the Doosan Il-Doo* made of pure gold. The Doosan Management Award is given to the division that achieved the highest business performance during the year.
* Doosan Il-Doo: Doosan Il-Doo is a symbol of group management for Doosan Group, made as a tribute to the founder of Doosan Group, Park Seungjik, who named the company Doosan in the hopes of making a business as big as a huge mountain, built from the ground up by one box of “mal” at a time. Doosan Il-Doo is a reproduction of ‘mal(斗, doo)’, a wooden measuring box used at the end of the 19th century when the company was founded.
Despite global parts supply issues, an unstable international situation, and growing financial risks, Doosan Bobcat managed to achieve record-breaking performance in terms of both external growth and profitability by recording KRW 8.6 trillion in revenue and over KRW 1 trillion in operating profits. Doosan Bobcat performed well in all areas of business, including GME (agricultural and landscaping equipment) such as skid loaders, track loaders, and excavators, industrial vehicles like forklifts and other types of logistics equipment, and portable power banks for mobile generators and lighting systems.
This year, the company plans to cope with the unstable market situation with strategies customized for different regions and products. An official from Doosan Bobcat said that “the company expects to maintain its growth momentum based on a solid order backlog in North America, while the GME business division that achieved a high growth rate in North America will target other markets such as Europe.” In the area of portable power products, the company plans to realize quantitative growth by introducing new products and expanding its existing lineup.
▲Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeongwon hands the Doosan Il-Doo to Michael Ballweber, President of the North America Branch of Doosan Bobcat USA, in front of a banner wishing to host the Busan Expo with the unmanned all-electric concept loader Rogue X in Doosan Bobcat’s booth at the CONEXPO 2023 held in Las Vegas, U.S.
▲Chairman Park Jeongwon examines the internal structure of the all-electric skid loader S7X and rides the loader to check on Doosan Bobcat’s advanced automation technology.
▲Chairman Park Jeongwon examines the compact tractor leading the growth of Doosan Bobcat’s agricultural and landscaping equipment product line.