SERVING THE FOREST INDUSTRY SINCE 1924

Company History

Wm Clark and Son (Parkgate) Ltd has provided engineering and forestry services for almost 100 years and are one of the UK’s leading suppliers and manufacturers of forestry equipment Founded in 1924 by William Clark, the company began as a blacksmith and farrier, with the repair of forest cultivation spades and hand tools and the shoeing of forestry horses

In the late 1940’s, William Clark’s son, Murray, began to design and manufacture a range of forest cultivation ploughs Over 2000 ploughs were sold and exported worldwide and much of the UK’s established forests were initially cultivated with Clark ploughs Wm Clark and Son also developed deep working ploughs for specialist applications such as salt ridging in Iraq, oil exploration in Australia, irrigation in Africa and sub-sea cable trenching around the UK coastline

In the early 1980s, the decline in bare ground tree planting in the UK, along with changes in cultivation techniques resulted in the degeneration of plough manufacturing and so, Douglas Clark, Murray’s son, moved the company into the sale and manufacture of specialised timber harvesting equipment In the 1980s, Clark became the distributor for many of the world’s leading forestry equipment manufacturers, including Indexator Ab of Sweden and OFA tyre chains of Finland; relationships that still exist today At this time, the company also began the design and production of forest machine tracks (which eventually became Clark Tracks Ltd), and their first range of Clark log grapples Over the following years, Clark secured the dealerships of many more of the world’s leading forestry equipment manufacturers who are still represented today including, ExTe, Cranab, Markusson, Oregon, Tamtron and most recently FaoFar for their range of forwarding trailers

The production of forest machine tracks began in 1988 and Clark became the second largest manufacturer of this equipment worldwide Most Clark tracks were fitted to Nokian forestry tyres which resulted in a close technical relationship with Nokian and ultimately the UK distributorship for Nokian Tyres in the UK A new company, Nordic Tyres (UK) Ltd, was formed in 1999 to sell and market all Nokian heavy tyres Clark Tracks Ltd was broken away from the main business and ultimately sold to Gunnebo Industries Ab in 2007

After the sale of Clark Tracks the company moved into new areas, one of which was the sale of forestry PPE and arborist equipment managed by Yvonne Clark After securing the world leading Pfanner and Protos distributorships for the UK and Ireland in 2012, this business grew substantially, resulting in the formation of a new company, Outwear Ltd, in 2018 Outwear operates from its own warehouse in Lockerbie and now represents many leading brands for the professional outdoor worker and outdoor enthusiast

Progressing into the new millennium, design, innovation and product development has been at the heart of the company and today Clark leads the market with their range of innovative refuelling tanks and systems, whilst the Powerhand division are a leading designer and manufacturer of forestry, sawmill, recycling and railway attachments

2019 saw the company reach a new milestone in its history, with Murray, the son of Douglas and Yvonne Clark, becoming the fourth generation of Clarks to join the family business Murray has now assumed the role of Managing Director and with a new factory construction planned to further expand the business in 2022, he is following in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his predecessors; setting the company on a new trajectory, with the future looking as positive as ever