Two Chilean customer stories – Shaped by the first Ponsse machine in the country
In forestry, not every career is defined by a title, some are defined by the machines behind them. For Freddy Rebolledo and Lorenzo Cid, two Chilean professionals who started as operators and later became business leaders, their first contact with Ponsse marked more than a technological milestone. It defined their technical mindset, their work values, and their path forward.
Their stories are different, but they share a common foundation: learning from the machine, growing through technical discipline, and building companies on reliability, maintenance culture, and respect for the craft.
Learning from the machine
Freddy began his career in 1991 as a forest machine operator, trained entirely in the field cab, workshop, and real-time troubleshooting. Ten years later, he was invited to become a partner in a new service operation using Ponsse used machines to support large forestry contracts. The shift would take him from operator to entrepreneur.
The Ponsse machine they worked with were among the first to arrive in Chile. They were not new, but they became a technical school. Through strong internal mechanical training and disciplined preventive maintenance, Freddy and his team developed deep knowledge of every system and component.
Those machines operated for nearly a decade across multiple harvesting and thinning sites, reaching exceptional lifetime figures, often exceeding 35,000 to 40,000 operating hours.
The key was not luck, it was culture. Operators and mechanics studied the machines, performed major repairs in-house, and built a maintenance-driven mindset. Years later, when Freddy became general manager, he carried that same field-based logic into leadership: close to operations, data-driven, and
grounded in technical reality.
Turning a stopped machine into an opportunity
Lorenzo’s path began in 1986 as a forwarder operator. In the early 1990s, when Ponsse machines were introduced into his operation, he noticed a harvester with around 18,000 hours standing idle due to minor faults. Instead of avoiding it, he asked to take it on as a personal challenge.
With a strong interest in mechanics, he diagnosed issues, corrected details, and brought the machine back into production. Soon after, he received factory-level
training from a Ponsse specialist knowledge that helped extend the machine’s
productive life by roughly 8,000 additional hours with solid availability.
That experience shaped his long-term view of the brand: reliable technology, adaptable to different harvesting conditions, and built to perform when supported by proper technical knowledge.
Later, when harvesting operations were outsourced, Lorenzo became part of the
worker group that formed a new service company. He is now a partner in two forestry service businesses operating mixed fleets and continues to value Ponsse for its standards, seriousness, and regional support capability.
When Freddy became CEO, he led using the same logic he had learned at the machine: staying close to day to day operations, relying on data, and
recognising technical realities.
From equipment values to company values
Both stories reflect the same pattern: machine discipline becomes business discipline. Robustness. Method. Preventive maintenance. Continuous improvement. Respect for procedure. These were not only machine requirements, but they also became management principles.
Freddy emphasizes that one early success factor was maximizing fully paid used machines before investing in new fleets reducing financial pressure while building operational8 strength. Lorenzo highlights technical curiosity and responsibility as the driver for growth.
The experience reinforced Lorenzo’s perception of Ponsse: reliable technology that adapts to different harvesting conditions and produces results when backed by the right technical expertise and support.
Continuing the journey with Ponsse
Today, both Freddy and Lorenzo are at the helm of their companies, Mecharv S.A. and SERFOC LTDA., and remain active Ponsse customers, continuing to trust the brand in their current operations. Freddy has an H8HD HH360 harvesting head mounted on a Doosan excavator and will soon expand his fleet with two Bear and two Elephant King for a new eucalyptus harvesting project on steep slopes. Lorenzo also runs an H8HD HH360 mounted on a Sany excavator.
For both, the present confirms what their stories have already shown: long-term confidence built on performance, technical support, and a machine philosophy they learned early on and still rely on today.
Freddy and Lorenzo share a message for young operators: see your work as a longterm path, not just a job. Learn the machine deeply, contribute improvements, and act with responsibility and creativity. Because sometimes a career does not begin with a promotion. It begins with a machine and the decision to truly understand it.