Caterpillar transforms itself into an industrial giant

Caterpillar, Inc., observed its 95-year anniversary in 2020, and the iconic CAT logo has been touched up with a dab of makeup. 

The company says this is just part of an “ongoing metamorphosis of the American industrial giant that essentially began on its first day of operation in 1925. 

The Caterpillar Tractor Company was born through the merger of two competing tractor companies that started up in California. Caterpillar management picked Peoria, Ill., to build the new company, located in the middle of America’s Heartland.

Although the Great Depression years (1929-39) had devastating effects on the world economy, Caterpillar marched ahead with a forward-looking business plan. Caterpillar managed to stay afloat by selling tractors and combines to the Soviet Union. 

Several Caterpillar milestones occurred in 1931, First, engineers perfected a tractor driven by a diesel engine. It instantly gave Caterpillar tractors more horsepower than ever, while making them less expensive to own and operate. 

Second, Caterpillar chose to discontinue its dark gray and red color scheme in 1931. An employee in the company’s marketing department asked: “Why not paint our tractors in bright colors?” 

The individual pointed out that “dingy gray was not very visible on highway jobs where the machines were in danger of being hit by other vehicles.” 

Management responded and adopted a policy stating that as of Dec. 7, 1931: “All Caterpillar products shipped would be painted in Hi-Way Yellow with trademarks and trimmings in black.” (“Hi-Way Yellow” became “Caterpillar Yellow,” which is identified as PMS 1235-C on the Pantone Matching System scale of ink colors.)

 Third, by 1931, 92% of the track-type tractors on the largest construction jobs in the United States were Caterpillar machines. One of earliest major projects undertaken in 1931 was the building of the Boulder Dam in the Black Canyon on the Colorado River. Twelve jumbo Caterpillar tractors were assigned to the project. 

Fourth, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” in 1931 ushered in the largest expansion of public infrastructure in U.S. history. Caterpillar machines were put to work on highway and bridge projects across America, from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. 

In today’s global economy, Caterpillar dominates as the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, as a leader in energy and transportation sectors and as the major producer of diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotive engines.

 

The Caterpillar story does seem to parallel that of a fuzzy caterpillar. One day, it will attach to a twig or leaf and spin a silky cocoon, molting into a shiny chrysalis. Within this protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body from larva to pupa, eventually emerging as a beautiful butterfly. The total transformation, through stages from egg to adult flying insect, is called metamorphosis. 

By 2000, Caterpillar’s farm tractors were generating less than 2.5% of the company’s total revenue. The decision followed in 2001 for Caterpillar to sell its remaining farm tractor line to AGCO Corporation, a farm-equipment conglomerate based in Duluth, Ga. 

The new anniversary graphics changed the CAT letters from white to “nearly silver, giving it a shiny, steel-like quality.”

More dramatic is the introduction of a new dimension. The CAT appears in the forefront, effectively eclipsing part of a “brilliant red hexagon with a grille pattern inside.” Three sides of the hexagon are totally visible, as is a trace of the fourth side of the geometric shape.