9th Life? Rumors Swirl About A Potential Savior For Longtime MN Brand

Arctic Cat is a longtime Minnesota brand that is on the verge of...well, going extinct. Arctic Cat announced last year it was going to be suspending production of snowmobiles in Thief River Falls and St. Cloud, and then later announced it would be laying off portions of its workforce. It seems like something is going on with the brand, which is headquartered in Thief River Falls, and you know what they say about seeing smoke...

The popular snowmobile website SuperTrax published a story yesterday that follows the breadcrumbs being subtly left by another manufacturer of ATVs and SXS. That other manufacturer of outdoor equipment has several ties to Arctic Cat. I'm referring to ARGO.

So what kind of crumbs are being picked up? Well, according to SuperTrax, ARGO's CEO Brad Darling, who has previous ties to Arctic Cat, was in Thief River Falls (TRF) "with an important group of business leaders who appeared to be inspecting the TRF production facility."

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Like SuperTrax wrote, this doesn't mean that ARGO is going to buy Arctic Cat Snowmobiles, but it does seem to indicate there is an appetite for the brand and or the line of snowmobiles.

Now ARGO, which is headquartered out of Canada, could also be looking to bringing some production of it's line to TRF, (tariffs?) as the facility is laid out for production. All of this, of course, is purely speculation, but where there is smoke...

I do hope that Arctic Cat either resumes production of snowmobiles after a brief pause or that Textron, the current owners of Arctic Cat, find a buyer for that division, because it wouldn't be winter in Minnesota without seeing a green machine flying across the fresh powder.