Nestled in the cozy city of Acworth, Ga., just under an hour drive away from Atlanta, is Yanmar’s EVO Center — a training and event space that also doubles as a tractor dealership.
Here, the LM team and other invited industry media were invited to an exclusive tour and compact equipment media day earlier this month to explore the company’s brand identity, latest compact equipment offerings and even demo the newest machines.
The day started with a tour of the more than 50,000-square-foot facility, which opened in 2017. The site comes with multiple training rooms and class spaces, a product showroom, a nearly 4-acre demo yard and more.
And the site served as a great place to showcase and test Yanmar’s new compact equipment — the highlight of the event. Some of the new compact machines showcased were the ViO80 mini excavator, the C30R tracked carrier, the V7 wheel loader, the TL100VS compact track loader (CTL) and more.
For a full breakdown on the machines and equipment the LM team saw and tested at the event, check out our other story here.
And speaking of equipment, the premier part of the event saw attendees get the chance to drive and test out the equipment as part of Yanmar’s Y.O.U. Club challenge — a new initiative for North America designed to recognize and engage the operators and owners at the heart of the compact equipment industry.
The Y.O.U. Club has two main components: a digital platform for connection and collaboration and on-site operator challenges at Yanmar dealer events and other industry trade shows. The LM team got to take Yanmar’s ViO35 excavator out for a spin during one of these challenges, and associate editor Nathan Mader completed the challenge by picking up all three basketballs using the machine and dropping them into three buckets on the other side of the machine (albeit a bit slower than he would’ve liked).
“We are preparing, now, lots of content so that when people connect (in the Y.O.U. Club), there’s already things that they can read, that they can connect to — some games, some quizzes,” says Elsie De Nys, Yanmar Compact Equipment global director of brands and corporate social responsibility. “But we’re also going to rely on the operators to give us ideas on content. For example, one of the articles that we’re preparing is how to prepare yourself in warm weather when you’re operating a machine, and I’m sure that many operators have very good tips around that. We would like them to get involved to help us create the content as well.”
Another large part of the media event was presentations about the Yanmar brand and future goals, along with a Q&A with product managers and executive team leaders.
One of the focuses in the presentations was recapping Yanmar’s goals for the remainder of 2025, most notably:
- Reinforcing and strengthening the Yanmar team to better adapt and grow the business.
- Strengthen how Yanmar works with and supports new and existing dealers.
- Grow its strategic dealer network with the development of focused and specialized dealers.
- Enhance Yanmar’s finance programs with Yanmar America Finance (YAM).
Strengthening dealer relationships and inclusion in the company was a major point of reiteration throughout the event, with calls for dealer feedback and participation in events and through initiatives like the Y.O.U. Club and Dealer Demo Days (coming this fall).
“Construction equipment business is really a relationship business and a people business. So, we need to keep it with the dealers as well and with our customers,” De Nys says. “That’s why, from now on, we’ll really in our marketing mix have a good balance between attending trade shows — where we will have that one-to-one contact with customers, dealers and press as well, but not in the same way and as captive as we can have it at the dealer demo events or demo events organized by us. So, we will do more of that.”
And as Yanmar CE continues to be more involved in the industry for its dealers and customers, the media event presentations reiterated a commitment to growing for its North American customers. Yanmar CE revealed that North American markets made up about 25 percent of its business, up from 11 percent in 2016. Yanmar predicts that number to be at 38 percent in 2029, meaning they’re focusing heavily on healthy, sustainable growth in the continent.
“You really are building that relationship,” says Frank Gangi, Yanmar CE product manager, CWL and attachments. “Our tagline, ‘Building with You,’ is kind of in everything that we’re doing — trying to get to the customers, to the dealers, to that brand awareness, knowing who we are and us knowing who you are. What solutions can we provide for your problems in your market?”
