AriensCo was founded in 1933 by Henry Ariens and his three sons – Steve, Leon and Francis after they developed the first American-made rotary tiller.
It took many years of experimentation, education and perseverance before rotary tilling became accepted as a proven agricultural tool. The Ariens family conducted educational programmes to teach commercial growers, nurserymen and landscapers how the new Ariens ‘Model A’ tiller, powered with an air-cooled engine, “plows as it discs as it harrows.”
Many commercial tiller models followed, all aimed at improving output for vegetable growers across the United States. AriensCo introduced the more compact ‘Model B’ tiller, the Roller-Tiller, the Multi-Tiller Tractor Tiller, the Jitterbug single-row front rotary tiller and the Tillivator RC for celery growers in Florida.
AriensCo entered the snow thrower market at the urging of an Ariens distributor in the Northeast of America who wanted a two-stage snow thrower for home snow removal. Product design began on December 15, 1959 and by March 1960, a prototype was complete. Test models were demonstrated to distributors throughout the Snowbelt. The company started production in July 1960, producing 1,865 units in the first season.
By the late 1970s, Ariens was producing more than 100,000 Sno-Thro machines each season. By 2018, Ariens produced its four millionth Sno-Thro and held a public celebration. Today, Ariens remain the ‘King of Snow’®
Ariens entered the lawn and garden market in 1958 with its first riding lawn mower. To meet ever increasing demand, the company built and opened a 23,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Brillion, Wisconsin in 1963. Up until the 1980s, Ariens had focused mainly on the residential mower market, but expanded into the commercial mower market through the acquisition of Gravely Company in 1982.
In 2010, the company grew its footprint into Europe, purchasing Countax Limited and Sovde, a Scandinavian distributor of outdoor power equipment. Along with garden tractors, AriensCo began producing its range of petrol zero-turns at its U.K. plant in 2019 – making it the first manufacturer to do so in Europe.
Today, Ariens products are sold in every major market in the world.