Contrary to the strategy adopted by several major tractor manufacturers, who are expanding their product ranges with tillage and grass harvesting equipment to achieve a ‘full line’ of machinery, Deutz-Fahr will focus chiefly on tractors and combine harvesters, the head of the company has said.
Speaking recently at a media conference at the official opening of the new Deutz-Fahr tractor production factory at Lauingen, Germany, SDF (Same Deutz-Fahr) Group CEO Lodovico Bussolati said the company will remain a tractor and combine specialist.
“We have no interest in implements,” Bussolati reportedly said. “You have to specialise to be able to do that. The same is true with grass harvesting equipment, and there are plenty of specialist companies out there already doing a good job.
We want to give our dealers the freedom to select the right brands for themselves.
Emphasising this strategy, the company recently ended its agreement with Kverneland to brand some of its implements in Deutz-Fahr liveries for certain markets.
Image source: Shane Casey
Bussolati stated that there is plenty of scope for internal growth with tractors and combines, and the company is growing its business in new markets in other parts of the globe.
Image source: Shane Casey
Meanwhile, Deutz-Fahr’s new tractor factory – the so-called ‘Deutz-Fahr Land’ – is now producing tractors from 130hp upwards.
Deutz-Fahr Land, in Lauingen, Germany, is the site in which 6 Series, 7 Series and 9 Series tractors are manufactured – for sale around the world.
A new tractor leaves the line every 12 minutes. It takes about 16 hours in total for each individual tractor to be pieced together. The assembly line stretches to a length of 0.7km.
The plant can produce 5,000 to 6,000 tractors a year (working on a single shift basis). Series production of the first 11 Series tractors (350-440hp) is planned for next year.
A plot of 150,000m² adjacent to the existing premises was purchased for this project. The L-shaped building, with a covered area of 42,000m² is said to use “state-of-the-art technology in the areas of assembly and painting and for the hydraulics, electronics and chassis tests – for quality assurance”.
About 10% of the tractors are put through a thorough three-hour check, which includes a test-drive on a special track.