AMAZONE Group turnover climbs to record level

Amazone turnover increases in 2018 to record level

Amazone turnover increases significantly despite the drought
For the 2018 financial year, the turnover of the Amazone Group of Companies further increased despite the drought that affected some countries in the second half of the year. The turnover increased to a record level of 481 Million Euros. In comparison to the previous year (457 Million Euros), this represented a growth in turnover of 5.3 %.

Amazone benefitted from its strong competitive position in the important export markets. With an export share of about 80 %, business levels in Germany, Great Britain, France, Japan, Spain, Hungary and Ireland developed very positively. Also in the important agricultural machinery markets of Poland and Russia, turnover remained stable in 2018.

For 2019, about 1,900 people in total, among them 130 trainees, are employed at Amazone including the new site in Bramsche and the subsidiary, Schmotzer Hacktechnik, taken over at the turn of the year; the company invested more than 7 % of the turnover in the research and development sector. Investment in tangible fixed assets exceeded 20 Million Euros.

Success by innovative strength and many new products
In the Agritechnica year of 2019, the Amazone managing directors Christian Dreyer and Dr. Justus Dreyer see the company on a stable course of success due to its innovative strength and its wide offering for all farm sizes. "The good result for sales in 2018 shows that our numerous innovations, introduced at Agritechnica 2017, and the intensified cooperation with our sales partners involved in the marketing of those innovations found a very positive response from the end users. The significantly expanded plough programme, created by the purchase of the plough factory from Vogel & Noot, has been proven in practical terms and was quick to establish itself in the market. With additional innovations and the take-over of the hoeing equipment from Schmotzer, we will further expand our position as the specialist for intelligent crop production. The combination of the hoeing technology with liquid fertilisation and the targeted or selective crop protection application in the same operational pass in future means the practice opens further possibilities for the optimisation of arable farming. Also in this machine segment we will strive for the market leadership and the further development of the product programme targeted at farmers and agricultural contractors.”

“With 2019 being an Agritechnica year, we will, through developments across the entire range, pay special attention not only to the larger machines but, in the same way, find innovative solutions for smaller and medium sized working widths. Particularly in crop protection and fertilisation, the trend is heading towards even more precision irrespective of the machine size, “

Expansion of the factory sites
As the most important event with regard to the expansion of the Amazone factories, the first new building at the newly founded Bramsche site was inaugurated in November, 2018. With, in total, an area of 24 hectares, Amazone has, as the first step, built assembly and storage halls with a floor area of 16,000 m² and an administration building. The amount invested in this building project amounts to about 16 million Euros. The new factory was designed as a factory of ‘short distances’ for the production of large machinery and with many levels of optional equipment. In addition, the factories in Gaste and Leeden and, as such, the production capacities around the parent factory are expanded. At the same time the total optimisation of the logistics has been carried out in the three factories.

For the British market, Orchard Farm, the new multi-million pound, Training, Education & Research Centre was completed in February 2019. Set in around 11 ha and with a floor area of 3,600 m2, the new facility offers a state-of-the-art parts distribution warehouse, office accommodation, indoor exhibition centre, training rooms, workshops and machinery field demonstration area.

Successful Amatechnica with many professional visitors
The specific events of the previous year included Amatechnica 2018 at the end of May at the parent factory in Hasbergen-Gaste with 6,000 visitors from at home and abroad. The practical presentation of the Amazone programme was in the focus both at the field evening tour 2018 across 27 locations in Germany and Austria and also with the DreamTeam Tour 2018 with machine demonstrations in eight countries in Europe.
The company got special recognition at the Russian Agrosalon Show 2018 where Amazone, as the only manufacturer from abroad was awarded even with two medals. The WindControl system on fertiliser spreaders was awarded a gold medal by the jury and the Comfort-Pack plus for the new UX 01 Super trailed sprayer received a silver medal.

In the Groundcare sector, Amazone, with the new Profihopper 1500 SmartLine self-propelled mower collector, introduced at GaLaBau 2018 a new professional implement in the highest performance class. Thanks to its operational speed of 10 km/h and a cutting width of 1.50 m, very high area outputs are possible.

Outlook
For 2019, the managing directors plan, after two record years, with a turnover at a high level. “Worldwide the markets are getting more and more demanding and depend on more diverse developments. In principle, the investment climate in agriculture, however, is still good, even when the results of many agricultural farms in Central Europe will be still dominated by the effects of the drought in 2018. The medium and long-term trend remains positive. The customers’ interest in modern agricultural machinery and in our innovations, which allow a more efficient, more precise and thus cost-saving operation with machinery of a high standard of quality is continuously good. However, in some export markets the impact of political changes, such as, for example, increasing international trade conflicts are difficult to estimate at the moment. We therefore go on to focus on our strengths such as the expansion of the innovation leadership for the Amazone core competences and the further strengthening of the cooperation with our relevant sales partners and importers in our target countries”, the managing directors emphasised.

For Agritechnica 2018, the Amazone managing directors Christian Dreyer and Dr. Justus Dreyer announce, in addition to further innovations in the different sectors, under the key-term “Amazone 4.0“ the further development of the linkage of machines and further improved service offerings. “The innovations are supposed to assist the digital linkage of operational procedures in agriculture to exploit additional optimisation potentials.” The agricultural technology specialists phrase their own demand on these developments as a maxim for the Amazone designers: “From these developments the farmer must be able to derive economic benefit by working more precisely and more efficiently and thus, by the exact application of seed, crop protection agents and fertilisers, save costs. At the same time, the farmer must be enabled by this new technology to reduce the application rates to be able to fulfil the demands of society for a more careful handling of the environment.”