"We build tractors!" said Lindsay O'Dell, senior purchasing manager for LS Tractor USA.
The company specializes in compact tractors that pull, haul, till and mow. It's a South Korean-owned company, a distant corporate cousin of the popular LG Electronics.
In 2009, LS Tractor USA made its move to Battleboro, opening its North American headquarters and assembly plant right on the Nash-Edgecombe County lines.
"They had a viable product that was inexpensive, quality-driven and they wanted to capture that U.S. market share," O'Dell said. "This is also close to our customer. There is a lot of agriculture in eastern North Carolina. We want to be close to that customer."
Their distinctive blue tractors appeared at last month's Raleigh Christmas Parade, a chance to show off their machines that start at 22 horsepower and top out at 101.
"101 is the one I drove in the parade. That's the one I like," O'Dell said.
The company markets itself to small farmers pulling smaller loads of soybean or hay.
"When you get to the really big farms that have hundreds of thousands of acres, that's more John Deere," O'Dell said with a laugh. "That's not quite our market."
All the final touches-the hydraulics, the hood, the fenders-get assembled in Battleboro. In the company's best year, it shipped 10,000 tractors. They plan to double that in the next eight years.
"Everybody has a great deal of pride to say I'm from North Carolina, I commute 15 minutes down the street to a global company that is distributing tractors to all of North America," O'Dell said.
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