The company also debuted a new logo.
In a release, the company said the rebranding is “driven by a shift in strategy to transform the business into a solutions provider, and the role the International brand can play in a streamlined customer and user experience.”
“After more than 120 years, we are choosing to return to our roots as International,” Tobias Glitterstam, chief strategy and transformation officer, said in a statement. “International embodies determination, partnership, and collaboration in meeting every challenge with a solution.”
The “international” apellation has a history in Springfield. As does the company itself.
The lineage of Navistar and its corporate predecessors can be traced to the early 1900s when a merger resulted in the then-named International Harvester Co. But the story goes back even further.
The McCormicker Harvester Co., started by inventor Cyrus McCormick, was established back in 1847. The other part of the merger, the Deering Harvester Co., was founded by William Deering in 1874. Both companies focused on agricultural machinery at the time.
Before the pandemic, Navistar was a major employer in Clark County, with more than 1,800 workers at its Springfield manufacturing plant and thousands of retirees living in the area.
The manufacturer reported a $30 million profit in 2017 — its first annual profit in six years at the time — after weathering turmoil that included top management changes, legal struggles, a recession and a failed engine technology.
There have been times of hiring and layoffs in the years since.
Questions were sent to a spokesman for the company.
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