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A Danish industrial fairy-tale
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The HARDI idea started in 1957, when Hartvig Jensen established the company. He was a gardener and needed a quality sprayer. After a few years the company expanded horticulturally and invested in large production facilities outside Copenhagen. The HARDI sprayers were soon retailed not only to Danish, but also European farmers, and the company expanded rapidly.
Time line
- 1957 HARDI was founded by Hartvig Jensen Production of the 1-cylinder HARDI pump started
- 1958 Factory buildings in Glostrup, Denmark were bought
- 1959 Started export of pumps to Evers & Wall (England)
- 1967 SVENSKA HARDI was founded
- 1971 Nørre Alslev was built 5,000 m2 (today 47,000 m2)
- 1982 George White, the distributor for HARDI components in North America goes out of business. HARDI International hires many of the George White employees and opens its own operations in North America.
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1983 Location is leased in Altoona Iowa. Operation is basically made up of distributors and 2 Territory managers for Iowa.
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1984 Two more Territory managers are hired for the North Eastern United States
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1985 HARDI Great Lakes operation is opened in London Ontario with Sales manager and 3 more T/M’s
- 1987 EVRARD in France acquired
- 1988 ILEMO in Spain acquired
- 1987 The air assisted concept TWIN was born
- 1989 New head office and factory in Taastrup
- 1990 Operations in Altoona were closed and relocated to new facilities in Davenport IA.
- 1995 World leading hand-operated sprayers COOPER PEGLER was acquired
- 1997 Auriga Industries acquired HARDI. HARDI West Coast location is established in Fresno California
- 1998 Australian production site established
- 1999 POMMIER in France acquired
- 2000 New paint facility and redesigned factory layout in Nørre Alslev
- 2001 Consolidation of Scandinavian markets. Delivery of fully assembled and tested sprayers directly from Nørre Alslev factory
- 2002 Australian distribution acquired
- 2003 All production in Denmark gathered in Nørre Alslev
- 2004 West Coast operation is move to larger facility in Visalia California.
- 2005 Launch of the New COMMANDER trailers based on "Functional design". 12 European Awards
- 2006 Launch of "The intelligent sprayer" concept
- 2007 HARDI 50th Anniversary
- 2007 HARDI member of the Exel Industries Group