Poulan is a brand name of the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

manufacturer

Husqvarna AB The Husqvarna Group () is a Swedish manufacturer of outdoor power products including robotic lawn mowers, chainsaws, trimmers, brushcutters, cultivators, and garden tractors. Founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1689, it is one of the old ...

History

Poulan was founded as Poulan Saw Co. in 1946 by

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw, power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as t ...

pioneer

Claude Poulan Claude Casper Poulan (1915–1995) of Monroe, Louisiana was the founder of Poulan Chain Saws and the inventor of the bow guide. In 1944, Poulan was supervising German prisoners cutting pulpwood in East Texas. At the time this task required t ...

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

. Purchased in late 1950s or early '60 by the Beaird Company, also of Shreveport, it was known as Beaird-Poulan. The company was acquired by Emerson Electric in 1972, and was purchased by

Electrolux Electrolux AB () is a Swedish Multinational corporation, multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool Corporation, Whi ...

in 1984, which closed its Shreveport factory in 1988. In 2006 Electrolux spun off Husqvarna into its own company. In 2022, a company called Valsi in Mexico purchased tooling from Husqvarna for manufacturing walk behind mowers. Valsi also purchased the rights to manufacture outdoor power equipment under the Poulan Pro brand.

Poulan brand today

The Poulan brand name is used primarily for outdoor power equipment, such as chainsaws, lawn mowers, and

leaf blower A leaf blower, commonly known as a blower, is a device that propels air out of a nozzle to move debris such as leaves and grass cuttings. Leaf blowers are powered by electric or gasoline motors. Gasoline models have traditionally been two-s ...

s, aimed at the mid-level consumer market. Since Poulan is owned by Husqvarna, the two brands often share technologies. In recent years Poulan has offered a more upscale "Poulan Pro" brand employing a black and gold color scheme instead of Poulan's traditional green. As a result, Poulan products have been pushed even further upmarket.

References

External links

* {{Power tool manufacturers Manufacturing companies of Sweden Garden tool manufacturers Power tool manufacturers Tool manufacturing companies of Sweden