Liebherr Construction Equipment Co. has announced the signing of an agreement between Liebherr-Werk Telfs GmbH and John Deere’s Construction & Forestry Division, of Moline, IL, to end their current dual-branding strategy for large crawler dozers sold in the North American market and grant John Deere an exclusivity agreement for these products.

Under an agreement signed in December 2000, Liebherr has provided large crawler dozers and crawler loaders under both the Liebherr and John Deere brands. The new agreement will grant John Deere exclusivity for the two large Deere crawler dozers, the 234-hp 950C and the 330-hp 1050C.

This agreement contains specific market goals for the John Deere branded large crawler dozers, and as a result, Liebherr will discontinue marketing the comparable PR 742 and PR 752 in North America except for mining applications.

Duane Wilder, president, of Liebherr Construction Equipment Co., said, “This new agreement provides the North American dealer coverage necessary to increase market share for Liebherr’s technology in large crawler dozers while focusing our Liebherr brand on the product range representing the strength of our Liebherr dealer organization.”

“We are very pleased with this exclusivity agreement because it shows Liebherr’s confidence in our dealers’ capabilities in selling and supporting larger products,” said Kevin Karlix, John Deere’s director of sales.

Two crawler loader models in the original agreement, Liebherr LR 622, LR 632 and the John Deere 655C, 755C will continue to be marketed through their respective North American dealer channels.

Liebherr-Werks Telfs will continue to manufacture both product lines, which have some product differentiation in operator controls, etc., as provided to the respective dealer channels. This strategy has resulted in substantial market share growth for Liebherr manufactured crawler loaders sold in North America.