2025 Construction Executive Outlook: Al Quinn, CEO of Hitachi CMA

Editor’s Note: This is one of four Q&As with top executives from construction equipment manufacturing companies. To read perspectives from Brady Seavert, Bobcat VP of Construction Sales, click here. For Scott Young, Head of North America, Volvo CE, click here. Stay tuned for new perspectives next week.

OEMs saw mixed growth in 2024 as the economy continues to recover from a period of stubborn inflation, high interest rates and global conflicts.

But ask some of the top construction equipment executives about their forecast for 2025 and the outlook gets a little rosier.

For this series of Q&As, Equipment World tapped a handful of construction industry leaders to find out what trends are shaping their strategy in 2025, how they plan to invest in their manufacturing and dealer operations and where the greatest opportunities and roadblocks lie.

Our slate of experts also touched on technology – from telematics to AI – and the next steps in their alternative power transformation.  

Keep reading to see where our third expert, Al Quinn, CEO of Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas, is placing his bets in 2025:

Equipment World: Looking back on 2024, what is your biggest learning or a-ha moment?

2024 was a transformational year for Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas. We were optimistic when we started the year, but we did not expect the overwhelming customer demand that we saw in 2024. We learned firsthand the challenges associated with growing our organization to meet this market’s customer demand. Hiring people, putting the processes and systems in place, and providing the operational performance to match the superior products that Hitachi machinery is known for has been a challenge. But I’m happy to say that we have been meeting the challenge and we are seeing the benefits with our dealers through increased market share.

EW: What trends are shaping your strategy in 2025?

Connectivity with our machines will be a major focus for us in 2025. While we continue our relentless efforts to provide the most productive and reliable machines on the market, we also want to reduce our customers' cost of ownership with enhanced telematics that significantly reduces repair times. This is an opportunity to demonstrate our willingness to embrace open autonomy solutions.

A good example was the Hitachi Construction Machinery Challenge, a recent event at our Americas headquarters where we invited innovative startups to present ideas to improve our technology for our customers. Collaboration with other innovators who have a similar vision is going to be the key to improving the customer experience with Hitachi machinery.

EW: What is the biggest construction market opportunity in 2025?

The construction industry market will be very competitive in 2025. There are too many equipment chasing deals.

We feel this is a great time for Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas to continue building on the market share improvements we have seen over the past two years. Our North American introduction to a global brand brings us great equipment and many opportunities to innovate how we provide solutions to meet our customers' needs.

EW: What will be the greatest challenge?

Our sales growth over the past two years has stressed our ability to provide supporting services that match the unbeatable quality of our products. With the help of our dealers and our parent company, we have made great strides and ramped up our capabilities. Our support teams have grown at an incredible rate, and we are now ready to innovate in how we work with customers.

In 2025, we are ready to take on the challenge of being the easiest OEM to work with.

EW: What issues are your dealers facing and how will you help them address those problems in 2025?

Dealers have too much inventory and not enough support personnel. We are working with our dealers to further understand their needs and streamline our logistics to provide machines only when needed. Inventory is a big cost in the channel, and we are focused on reducing these costs.

On the engineering side, we are continually working to enhance the reliability of our machines for dealers with high-quality products. On the support side, we are working to simplify processes and troubleshooting capabilities to increase technician productivity and become more proactive in our problem-solving.

EW: Will you make investments in your manufacturing and distribution networks next year? If so, what will they be?

In 2024, we concentrated on expanding our parts distribution reach to better support our growing network. A key milestone was the September opening of our 173,000-square-foot warehouse in Salt Lake City. This facility now enables us to fully serve our dealers and customers across the Western United States and Canada. With the warehouse now operating at full capacity, we anticipate a significant reduction in downtime for Hitachi construction and mining machines.

Looking ahead to 2025, we are committed to taking this progress even further by expanding our dealer network and local machine configuration capabilities.

EW: What technology do you see as having the most potential in the near-term?

At the Hitachi Construction Machinery Challenge, we saw so many potential use cases for up-and-coming technology. AI was a common thread in a lot of what we saw, and we can’t wait to see what it can do for Hitachi machinery.

At our Americas headquarters, we are proud to champion our parent company’s efforts to become a true solutions provider. With the United States’ dynamic technology ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to support Hitachi Construction Machinery Group’s vision of being more than a machinery provider and becoming a technology leader in our industry.

EW: What's the next step in your alternative power plans? What kind of demand are you hearing from end users on electric, hydrogen or other alternatively fueled equipment?

The Hitachi Construction Machinery Group has taken significant steps towards providing alternatively powered machinery. Recently, the Group announced a partnership with Dimaag AI to develop an electric mini excavator with interchangeable batteries.

In mining, we are also setting new standards with our full-battery mining truck. It was the first ultra-large battery-powered truck tested at a mine site. This innovation earned us an Anthem Award, recognizing the truck in the Responsible Technology category.

By combining technology with the Japanese excellence behind our machine engineering, we are going to continue working to redefine what’s possible in the construction industry.

EW: Any other nuggets of wisdom you’d like to share for the year ahead?

Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas is committed to the North and Latin American markets. Hitachi machinery has been a leader in these markets, and we expect to translate this history into a market-leading position for the Hitachi brand in the Americas. As relative newcomers, we have the opportunity to innovate with our dealers to create the best possible experience for our customers. It’s an exciting time for Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas, and we are happy to see more and more customers wanting to join us.

Al Quinn, CEO of Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas, is launching the next phase for the company as it expands into the North and Latin American markets. He has been active in the equipment industry for 40 years. Quinn started on the factory floor, working his way through production and parts roles before taking on the responsibility for North American distribution for Timberjack. With the purchase of Timberjack by Deere & Company, Quinn moved to Nortrax and managed Nortrax Central for five years. Through his experience, Quinn gained great insights and gained an understanding of the relationships between dealers and their OEMs. In this next chapter, Quinn is excited to redefine what it means to be an OEM in an ever-evolving technological landscape to show the construction and mining industries what the future can look like with Hitachi Construction Machinery.