Sampo to end its combine deal with John Deere in Europe?

It is believed that Sampo (Sampo Rosenlew) will discontinue its current “distribution collaboration” with John Deere (Deere & Company) in Europe.

The Finnish-headquartered company says that it is “targeting growth in the European combine harvester market with an updated and expanded product range”.

To speed up growth, the company is apparently planning to develop a network of independent dealers in EU member states, whereby it will “start to market its products in these markets under the Sampo Rosenlew product brand-name”.

While this will see the current “distribution collaboration” with Deere & Company come to an end, Sampo says that “both companies are committed to providing support and spare parts service for products [already] in the field”.

This is an interesting development, given that John Deere announced the launch of updated Sampo-built combine harvesters as recently as August of last year.

One of these (John Deere badged) machines is pictured (below).

It’s also worth noting that, over the years, Sampo has built combines for a variety of other agricultural machinery manufacturers, including (but not only) Deutz-Fahr and Massey Ferguson.

The company is known not only as a producer of combine harvesters but also forestry machines.

Sampo Rosenlew is now part-owned by Indian manufacturing giant Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).

This development commenced back in 2016, when M&M acquired a 35% equity stake in the Finnish harvester maker.