TSE Symbol:  SQP                                         For Immediate Release


STRONGCO AWARDED DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS FOR  TIGERCAT FORESTRY LINE THROUGHOUT CANADA

Mississauga, Ontario:          Wednesday, August 2, 2000,  11:00 AM

Strongco Inc. today announced that effective September 9, 2000, it has been selected by Tigercat Industries Inc. to distribute its full line of premium forestry equipment, providing sales, parts and service throughout Canada in key markets from Newfoundland to the Alberta/B.C. border.  This expands Strongco’s distribution arrangements with Tigercat, which began last year.  

In 1992 a small group of professionals with extensive experience in the forestry industry teamed up with MacDonald Steel, a leader in the steel fabricating industry to design and manufacture premium quality forestry and off-road equipment.  Today, Tigercat operates out of facilities totaling over 190,000 square feet in the Paris/Brantford area of Ontario.   Tigercat offers contractors a well-rounded line of purpose-built forestry equipment and, by teaming up with Strongco, offers customers the ability to purchase and support full logging systems under one roof. 

“We are extremely pleased to expand our relationship with a Canadian manufacturer of the caliber of Tigercat Industries”, said Larry Pirnak, Strongco’s Chairman and CEO.  “Tigercat is judged one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Private Companies and our association with them is in keeping with Strongco’s strategic objective of securing distribution rights of significant equipment lines which can be immediately combined within Strongco’s existing facilities.”

Strongco is one of the largest equipment distribution companies in North America.  It operates a network of 56 branch locations across Canada, which sell, rent and service mobile equipment to users in the construction, municipal, mining, forestry and industrial sectors of the economy. 

For further information visit our web site www.strongco.com or contact:

Randy Henderson
President
(905) 565-3802