TAKEUCHI - THE MAN AND HIS COMPANY
By Jim Brown

Akio Takeuchi's first job in Japan was working for a company fabricating auto parts, until in 1963, at the age of 29 he started his own company. His business expanded into auto parts assembly, but Mr Takeuchi always dreamed of designing and making his own products.

A home construction boom in Japan in the 1960’s created an unprecedented demand for earthmoving. A business acquaintance asked Mr Takeuchi if he could mechanise the shovels and pickaxes used on Japan’s many building sites. Excavators in Japan at the time were too cumbersome for smaller scale landscaping, plumbing and laying electricity cables, especially where room to move was limited. 

Mr Takeuchi accepted the challenge, and came up with the world’s first “mini-shovel.” What set the first Takeuchi machine apart then (and still does) was the intelligent use of hydraulics to perform the complicated flexible movements of an excavator.

When the compact tracked TB1000 excavator made its first appearance in 1971, Takeuchi’s competitors scoffed and said the machine looked like a toy.   They soon changed their tune when earthmovers started buying the “mini shovel” in droves, and asked Takeuchi to design more earthmoving equipment.

Mr Takeuchi recalls those exciting days- “A lot of the new ideas were blueprints in our heads, but we were confident we could translate them into the machines the market was asking for.”

The Takeuchi company’ global expansion over the next 30 years is an amazing story.  New manufacturing plants opened in Japan, USA, UK, France and China, and started turning new engineering concepts into factory production.   A wide range of light, maneuverable, but robust excavators and tracked loaders came on to the worlds markets, and earned respect for their toughness and reliability.

Mr Takeuchi says the features that quickly built the brand’s reputation were:-

“ADEQUATE POWER,
HEAVY DUTY CONSTRUCTION, and
HIGH QUALITY.”

This was especially valuable in the developing European and American markets where Takeuchi machines had to work much harder and longer than in Japan.

In 2002 Takeuchi listed on the stock exchange and was soon rated as one of the top 30 companies in Japan.

Earthmoving contractors admire the ingenious design that lifts the Takeuchi brand head and shoulders above its competitors:-  Expandable tracks, full cabin rotation, joystick control, and zero tail swing and more have taken Takeuchi from first in the market, to market leader.

After more than 40 years of supplying top quality machinery, Takeuchi’s production now exceeds 20,000 units a year, and has claimed a large chunk of the global earthmoving market.

Akio Takeuchi is a brilliant businessman, supported by a loyal executive team. Some have stayed with the company more than 30 years, but to ensure Takeuchi always maintains its creative edge. he has invested in the future by attracting a new generation of designers and engineers.

To this day Akio Takeuchi shows an extraordinary talent for quickly grasping concepts.  Peter Rowland, of PROSKID, (Takeuchi’s distributor for Victoria) recently met him in Japan, and was discussing a design modification for a tracked loader.   Before Peter finished demonstrating his thoughts on a piece of paper, Akio took the pen and quickly completed the drawing, showing an instant grasp of the concept and the solution.  According to Peter, Akio is a likeable man with a brilliant mind who shows no sign of slowing down. 

And he has other abilities, as Peter found out when Mr Takeuchi took the stage at a Karaoke bar, and revealed a voice worthy of an opera star. 

Perhaps he missed his calling, but Akio Takeuchi is still a star in his own right when it comes to designing and manufacturing earthmoving equipment, which in its class, is the best in the world.