Inside Hitachi’s Rebrand: LANDCROS Means Innovation

For Hitachi Construction Machinery, a company with origins dating back to 1912, the future is paved with change. In November 2025, the company announced it will officially change its corporate name and brand to LANDCROS, effective April 1, 2027. According to Hitachi, the brand transition represents its next stage of accelerating innovation to create and provide customers new forms of value as they look to the future. The change introduces updated equipment and parts branding, but also aims to maintain many of the company’s existing core values.

Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas Chief Operating Officer (COO) Simon Wilson explains that the reinvention is rooted in its long history and changing ownership structure. Founded in 1912, Hitachi pioneered major innovations in construction equipment, eventually becoming a large conglomerate. In the 1970s, Hitachi spun off Hitachi Construction Machinery as a standalone business, though the parent company retained majority ownership and control.

The company went public in 1981, continued expanding globally, and entered a long partnership with John Deere in 2000 to strengthen its presence in the Americas. That partnership ended in 2021. In 2022, Hitachi Limited made a strategic decision to reduce its ownership stake from 51% to 25%, signaling a move away from direct control and toward full independence for Hitachi Construction Machinery.

Because Hitachi Limited only allows majority-owned companies to use the Hitachi name, this ownership change meant Hitachi Construction Machinery would eventually need a new brand. Over the next several years, the company evaluated its strategy and identity. In 2025, it decided that in 2027 it will rebrand as LANDCROS, reflecting its evolution into a fully independent public company with greater freedom over capital, investment and long-term direction.

Equipment Today (ET) spoke with Wilson for a look at the move and what it means for the company, its dealers and its end users in construction. Read on for his insights.

ET: Tell us about LANDCROS and the meaning behind the name.

LANDCROS was originally built as a concept, but there was always the plan that at some point it would become who we are. It’s a desire that we want to be more than just the machines. The machines are the core of what we are, but we also know that the business, the customers, the technology is advancing so fast that now there’s more than just the machine. It’s how customers interact with and use the machines with technology. LANDCROS encompasses many different factors of that technology, but also of our desires for the future.

In the name LANDCROS, there are two components. First, the LAND. Land is so important to us at Hitachi Construction Machinery. We are very careful of what we do, leaving the earth for our next generations in a better place than the way we found it. We want to make sure that we know our equipment works with the earth and the land, we want to make sure that it’s doing so as best and as efficiently, but also safely, making sure that the earth is a continuation for us all. Next comes the CROS, which is an acronym representing the four key components of who we are: Customer, Reliable, Open, Solution.

The first is Customer: We want to always make sure that customer is first in mind. It’s not what we desire, it’s what our customers desire, so we want to make sure we’re always listening. It’s what has been at the core of Hitachi machines since the start. It was always: What do you think? What do you need? What do you like? What do you not like? How can we help you? How do we make sure that we’re providing something for you, the customer, and that it’s a customer-driven idea. Next, is Reliable. And that’s not just reliable equipment, it’s also reliable partner you can trust in. We want to be there. We want to make sure the people we engage with and the customers that engage with us can count on us. We want to make sure that we’re there for them when they need it, no matter what that means — if that’s in a parts or customer service aspect, or “hey, I’ve got a new need and I’m not really sure how I can solve that,” that’s where we want to be reliable. They can know they have a partner that will always be there, which is important for us in this transition. Nothing other than the name is changing, so we still want to be the reliable supplier that they’ve known for the last three, 10 or 50 years. The O in our acronym is Open. We’re very open, and we truly believe in open technology and open thoughts.

We know that we may not have every answer when it comes to technology on a machine, so we’re open to working with other companies and partners. We want to find the right solution for the customer. We’ll work together to figure out what’s best for you as you go forward.

And finally, the S is Solution, as in a solution provider. It’s a carryover, something that’s always been with us, making sure that we’re finding solutions for our customers, and finding that whatever that means, that might mean something within our product, it might mean something within their business need, but whatever that solution is, we want to be a solution provider. We want to continue that in our new name, LANDCROS.

ET: What does this mean for the organization as a whole?

Nothing is changing in the organization aside from the name. If anything does change, it’s really the freedom for the global company of Hitachi Construction Machinery to now have the ability to oversee its own deployment of capital, upon its direction of where it wants to invest, without a parent company to explain, report and drive those. The executives, the management, the factories, all of those are staying the same.

Our machines are going to stay the same. That color will stay the same. An important piece for us is the color of the machines are staying the same —what we call “reliable orange.” The change of the name in decals will come to each machine, and that is a big deal, but it’s also one that will happen beginning in April 2027.

Historically, we are number one, two or three, depending on the countries that we participate in globally. In North America, as we relaunch the brand, we are still on track for us to be one of the big four in terms of unit sales in the markets that we participate in. So for our standing in the market and where we expect to go, we have no change in our growth plans. We expect to continue with our outstanding dealer network that has come on-board over the last three to four years. They’ve been trained up and we’ve been engaged together in that. We’ve grown together. And they’re really starting to hit their strides in the marketplace. The dealerships are at the core here in the Americas, and the plan we have for growth and what we’ve talked with the dealers about has their full support. If anything, this will allow us some quicker items, potentially, as we expand product portfolios and look at different products we’re going to get into that will help us as we move forward. We’re in a phase of a change with our dealers, which will take some months and days to come through.

Our next phase is with the customers and making sure they understand the dealers aren’t changing, the product isn’t changing, the support isn’t changing, but the name on the machine and the name on the dealership will change. And that’s a big deal, so we want to make sure we work through that appropriately.

ET: Regarding branding, what does this mean for existing machines, parts and serviceability moving forward? And then, of course, dealers and end users?

Right now, the brand will be changing on April 1, 2027. We fully expect at that point in time, the product, as we’ll be selling it, will transition in the marketplace. The main machines will start seeing the new decals coming through, and the parts and the other pieces on the machines aren’t changing. The products aren’t changing, the parts will fit, and parts will work on old machines to new machines, etc. We will have a transition plan as we go through the parts, and will be working with the dealers to repackage and rebrand those pieces, because those do take time, and that will happen from April 1, 2027, and forward.

ET: What does this mean for product development and innovation? At bauma 2025, Hitachi introduced LANDCROS One, an excavator prototype — what’s next?

There’s always a product plan — there’s a deep, intensive future product plan to develop the next generation. What are the next pieces our customers will be asking for? What are we working on to develop that? So, that remains unchanged, though, as I mentioned earlier, the ability for the company to invest or to work through some different investments and different schedules for product. It gives them more freedom because of the requirements. Now, as a standalone company, it really is standalone in that the board can determine how and where investments go in, and there’s a large amount that Hitachi is continuing to invest in its product. We are fully expecting in the coming years some new products that replace some current models, some of our excavators and some of the products you’ll see in North America, some products that potentially are sold in other markets, that now we’re going to bring in. We’re not disclosing those yet, but CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 will be the key timeframe for some of those new introductions. Even outside of that, there are some other segments of the market that we’re working through and, while the brand change doesn’t directly impact that, it does allow some differences for the company, as they’re a little bit more nimble. We’re really looking to invest and there is going to be some new product coming out. We expect there will be some under the Hitachi brand before the April 1, 2027, timeframe. And then there’s going to be some that will come afterward under the LANDCROS name. It’s an exciting time for us and our engineers — more than 3,000 strong in Japan working on the current product. They are working fast and furious, especially for us here in North America, because this is still the largest market and the highest growth focus for Hitachi Construction Machinery. And our success is what the company is pinning itself on and so far, knock on wood, we’re doing well and we’re on our we’re on track with our plan.

ET: Are you able to share any details or developments regarding autonomous or remotely operated equipment, gamified ergonomics, or integrated tech partners?

At CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026, you’ll see a couple of these. We’re still not disclosing the companies, but there are a couple of those pieces in play. The autonomous side is very key and a high discussion point these days, but some of the other components just are coming in. We shared a little of it at bauma 2025, but even more with the next generation of how machines operate, how they interact with the operator and how it improves their ability to operate those machines. And there’s a lot of safety items that are coming along with this as well, that will help improve productivity. These are specific to some of our industry segments, especially those putting pipes in the ground. Those are some of the key items that we’re looking at, using some of the cool technology that may not be designed by us, but it’s being integrated with us, with some of these partners. This really pushes to what LANDCROS is: We see ourselves as having many relationships, and using the best and the brightest people from the industry, and even outside the industry, to make our products more productive and more user friendly, and adding value for our customers.

ET: Tell us about ground-to-cloud technologies. Where is that bringing in AI or other advanced solutions?

The ground to the cloud is, is because of the power of the technology, and really the AI drive that is really starting to take an acceleration in our industry. We are going to be part of that, and some of the work that we’re doing to really bring those tools together, where they don’t have to be embedded on the machine, but they’re embedded somewhere else, and using somewhere else, because you can, can’t go anywhere now with having that machine connected, you know, and there’s, there’s even simple ones that we have on our machine today where we have what we call con site air, and this is the ability for our dealerships to connect to that machine, no matter where it is, without physically being at the machine. So think of your iPhone, the ability for you to download new software or to just dial in using the cloud, in the cell networks or a satellite network, you can connect to that machine. You can diagnose what’s going on. You can see if it’s working operationally. You can see what’s necessary without having to have somebody to drive to that machine and connect a cable to it. These are just little things, but there are even more things this technology focus in our industry is coming to and it’s exciting. In seeing it in action, it makes a lot of sense and adds value. And this is what some customers are asking for, and we’re going to deliver what they want.

ET: Does LANDROS intend on growing dealer footprints, and if so, in which markets?

Today, we have 24 dealer groups and a little more than 90% of the geographical market covered. We expect over the next several months that we will have a few more of those areas fully covered in North America with 26 dealer groups. And with the brand change, we’re investing in those dealers. But the bigger item is the continued investment that our dealers put into the business, the goals that they have, and aligning with the goals that we have. They’re willing to grow with us, they’re willing to try different things. And for me, that’s part of the excitement. We don’t want to do things the way everyone else is doing things. We want to do it the Hitachi way, and now the new LANDCROS way. And we truly believe the dealer body that we have in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, are the dealer groups that are going to take us into the future — we invest in them and they invest in us. That’s what you want as an OEM, and here we feel we’re lucky.

ET: What has been the reaction so far? And what do you anticipate hearing once the rollout begins?

Initially, there were a lot of questions — Why? And what does this mean? — and starting to address the emotional response and understanding the plan. Now, it’s moved over into “How do we making this as great as we

can?” We have a ton of work to do to make sure that people truly understand what goes on moving forward. The Hitachi name has been on machines for 75 years. When you change that, it doesn’t mean everyone remembers or understands, and that’s our goal: to make sure that the customers understand that the dealers are still going to be the same dealers, the same people that they already deal with.

This is a long road as we go forward, but we’re very happy with where it is at this stage. I give my congratulations to our team. It was a lot of work to get here. Now it’s “go” time.

ET: What final message would you like to share with readers about Hitachi-LANDCROS moving forward?

First, I would say thank you. Thank you to those who have engaged with Hitachi over the last 75 years. You’ll see LANDCROS in the future, and you’ll see that the company and who we are is not changing. And for those of you who haven’t engaged with us, we always welcome people to our table, and we think you’ll be very satisfied with what we have to offer. We’re always going to be here to listen to our customers and be part of it. And we, all of us here, love this business. We love what we contribute to this entire construction economy we are a part of. We play our own little part. It’s what we love to do, and that’s the team we have here at Hitachi Construction Machinery.