Toro (company)

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The Toro Company (NYSE: [TTC]) is an American manufacturer of lawnmowers and other lawn care tools based in Bloomington, Minnesota. Founded as the Toro Motor Company in 1914The Toro Company History, [History 1910-1919], it serves professionals and businesses such as landscapers, golf course managers, and grounds and sports field managers, as well as individual homeowners. Although the company manufactures a wide variety of lawn maintanence equipment, in recent years it has come to dominate the golf course irrigation market Toro Golf Course Irrigation, [Golf Course Irrigation dominations].

In the 1990s, then CEO Kendrick Melrose (currently Chairman of the Board), figured out that supplying professional maintenance markets (such as golf courses, municipal parks, cemeteries and gated communities) yielded higher margins and offered more protection from the uncertainty of the weather than selling to retail customers. Today, roughly two-thirds of Toro's $1.6 billion in sales come from the professional market, versus one-third back in 1990.

The company's products are marketed under several brands:

• Toro – consumer lawnmowers, snowblowers, trimmers, leaf blowers, and irrigation systems
• Exmark – professional lawnmowers
• Lawn-Boy – consumer lawnmowers
• Irritrol Systems – professional light-duty irrigation
• Lawn Genie – consumer irrigation
• Pope (Australia) – consumer irrigation

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