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1960 - Ponsse sees the light of day

A crossbreed dog ambling carefree through the village of Vieremä in the late-1960s could have never imagined that his name would be remembered for decades to come; the first forwarder developed by Einari Vidgrèn was named Ponsse after the dog.

In the late winter of 1969 a grey - and in many people's opinion ungainly - load-carrying forest tractor was driven out of a village workshop in Vieremä, marking the moment when the first Ponsse forwarder, developed by contract logger Einari Vidgrén for his own use, first saw the light of day.

The Ponsse was taken into use at finnish forest company Tehdaspuu's logging site and after one year Tehdaspuu asked Vidgrèn to manufacture more of the same kinds of forwarders. Those were the modest beginnings of what is today the Ponsse Group, an internationally significant manufacturer of forest machines