Caterpillar Inc.'s Sanford, N.C., facility is celebrating its silver anniversary, marking more than two decades as a world-wide source of Caterpillar's compact track loaders (CTL).

Over the past 25 years, the facility has produced skid steer loaders, multi terrain loaders and compact track loaders.

Currently, the CTLs are the only product built in Sanford. To date, the facility has produced more than 420,000 machines.

Caterpillar purchased the property in 1996 from a former furniture manufacturer and two years later built its first skid steer loader. The campus has expanded from one building with less than 100 people to multiple buildings with 2,000-plus workers on site. The company recently purchased an additional building adjacent to the property to support its workforce by expanding capacity, upgrading technology, streaming lining operations and ultimately supporting the next generation of products. The facility now encompasses nearly 1M sq ft under roof in what will be six separate buildings.

CTL models currently produced in Sanford include: 259D3, 279D3, 289D3, 299D3 and 299D3 XE.

In the first quarter of 2024, the Sanford facility will be begin producing the Next Generation Cat compact track loader 255 and 265 models.

For more information, visit www.caterpillar.com.