Spring is always an optimistic time for our industry as new projects are breaking ground, and a busy construction season is just around the corner. While this viewpoint is common for the industry at this time of year, our positive outlook is supported by economic optimism from market experts as well.

Here at SMS Equipment, we know this positive forecast is welcomed by many of you. While the past few years have included struggles, we are happy to see some improved signals on the horizon.

Even through the tough economic conditions, we continued to work to meet your evolving needs. We were committed to helping you navigate industry changes in preparation for your ongoing support as your number one equipment and solutions provider. It was an investment we were proud to make.

In order to grow and better serve our customers across Canada, we have also continued to invest our own infrastructure in an effort to better support your equipment needs. In February, we opened a new truck shop at our Fort McMurray branch in Alberta. The massive facility can house two, fully assembled 400-ton-class Komatsu 980E ultra class haul trucks with their boxes in the “up” position inside its garage at the same time. The 112,000-square-foot shop features two, 45-by-35-foot Megadoors; two 40/5-ton overhead cranes, two 100/5-ton cranes; and additional office space for our staff. This building gives our technicians everything they need to service, assemble and repair any machine in your equipment fleet.

We are also anticipating the summer opening of our newest branch in Laval, Quebec. This state-of-the-art facility will serve as the new home of our Greater Montreal operation. This new facility meeting Leed environmental certification standards is designed to meet and surpass the requirements of our Komatsu and Wirtgen customers with five service bays, two component bays, welding, painting and wash bays, a modern and efficient parts warehouse and parts counter.

Komatsu also continues to make significant investments in its customers’ success through industry-leading equipment like its intelligent Machine Control pieces with fully-integrated GPS technology. The latest advancement of this initiative is Komatsu’s SMARTCONSTRUCTION program. This service is a way to ensure that customers are receiving all of the support and tools necessary to achieve maximum results from their intelligent Machine Control products. SMARTCONSTRUCTION enables SMS Equipment to partner with customers, providing machine data, model building, site monitoring and more. This valuable program helps customers take full advantage of technology and increase their return-on-investment.

While optimism and positive forecasts are great, we know they mean little without hard work. We hope you are ready to take action. Everyone at SMS Equipment is eager to help you maximize your investments and fully benefit from the exciting times ahead of us.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Granger

President & CEO