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The Kanga Group now has a quarter of a century to its name, with this season marking 25 innovative years in the engineering, design and manufacturing world.
And, in conjunction with this year’s anniversary, Kanga will celebrate by releasing a number of new innovations throughout the coming months.
Twenty-five years is a long history for any company, but the Kanga Group’s executive team has been working together even longer than the green industry manufacturing group has been in business. Alan Porter and Doug McIlwraith, group owners and joint managing directors at Kanga, have been working together since 1963. Their collaborative efforts brought the founding of the Kanga Group in 1978, which quickly built a reputation based on inventive and practical engineering solutions for a wide range of industrial applications.
With its initial concept of a motorized wheelbarrow, the group achieved a ‘world first’ with the development of the Kanga Mini Skid Steer Loader. The early units used 11- and 13-hp engines. End-user acceptance of the new concept was instant.
In the mid-‘80s, Kanga redesigned the mini loader units to accommodate larger engines – ranging from 13 to 16 horsepower. With continual hands-on development, the result was the Kanga Mini Skid Steer Loader.
The year 2000 brought another first for Kanga, with the introduction of the 13-hp Kanga Kid – Mini Skid Loader. And in 2002, Kanga’s directors produced and developed another ‘world first,’ the Kanga Track Kid, which was the smallest mini skid steer loader in the world with tracks (only 750mm wide).
Porter and McIlwraith attribute the company’s quarter-decade of success to the combined talents, skills and wealth of experience present on the Kanga team.
The author is Assistant Editor-Internet of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at aanderson@lawnandlandscape.com.