Agco Continues European Buying Spree

Agco Continues European Buying Spree TRACTORS Miscellaneous 22-1-27 Agco made big news at the Agritechnica as it continued its buying spree of European farm equipment companies. Robert Ratliff, Agco CEO, even made an appearance, explaining to the press and showgoers what the company's purchase of German tractor manufacturer Fendt and Danish combine manufacturer Dronningborg means. Fendt has been known for years as an innovative manufacturer of high-quality tractors that sell for around 20 percent more than MF, Deere and Case-IH tractors. It has succeeded with unusual tractors that no one else makes. For instance, it makes one model with an innovative front implement carrier with the engine under the cab. Ratliff says that under Agco's direction, Fendt might come out with its first combine ever. And he confirmed that Fendt tractors would be launched in North America for the first time in 1998 through a limited number of dealers. "We aim to find the best 200 dealers in the U.S. to sell Fendt," Ratliff told the German magazine Profi. "This is an exclusive product and we want the best dealers. The new dealers do not have to be our dealers already; they could, for example, be John Deere dealers." As for their other recent purchase, the Danish company Dronningborg has been building combines for Agco's Massey Ferguson division for years and Agco already owned 32 percent of the company Dronningborg makes one of the most inno vative combines in the world. In the 1980's it became the first manufacturer to incorpo rate complex computer systems into its com bines to monitor cleaning, maintenance and other systems. And it was the first to offe on-board GPS. No word on whether Agco will increase the presence of the Dronningborg-buil Massey Ferguson combines in North America. Ratliff did state, however, that i would not make sense to introduce U.S.-buil Gleaner combines into Europe.

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