2020 will go down in Fendt’s history as the special year of the coronavirus. Christoph Gröblinghoff, Vice President, Head of the Fendt brand EME and Chairman of the Board, speaking on October 7, 2020 at the AGCO/Fendt international press conference at the Fendt Forum customer service centre in Marktoberdorf, expressed satisfaction that agricultural machinery markets remain relatively stable, and that the strength of the Fendt brand, especially during a crisis, is becoming apparent. Despite the ongoing pandemic, Fendt can close out 2020 with a very respectable result.
Before Christoph Gröblinghoff went into detail on market and business developments, he thanked outgoing CEO Martin Richenhagen, who’s stepping down at the end of the year, on behalf of the leadership, works council and all Fendt employees for his enormous support and cooperation. “For almost 16 years, Martin Richenhagen has led the AGCO group and provided substantial support to the Fendt brand. As CEO of the group and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AGCO GmbH, Martin Richenhagen repeatedly convinced AGCO’s board and board members at AGCO headquarters in the US to make major investments and projects in Germany with the Fendt brand,” Christoph Gröblinghoff emphasized, citing numerous examples, such as building new production facilities for tractor manufacturing in Marktoberdorf and Beumenheim, acquiring and expanding forage-harvesting equipment plants in Hohenmölsen, Wolfenbüttel, Waldstätten and Feucht, decisions on major development projects for the Vario tractor series from the 200 to the 1000 Vario, and launching and expanding the Fendt Forum customer service centre and the AGCO DCX digital centre in Marktoberdorf.
“Over the past 16 years alone, the AGCO group has invested around one billion US dollars in AGCO’s German operations and Fendt tractor development. Like no one else, Martin Richenhagen actively championed the Fendt brand, while also demanding a lot from it. The success and rise of the Fendt brand speak for themselves, especially in the Richenhagen era: staff numbers have more than doubled. Tractor sales grew by 70 percent, and the successful expansion of Fendt’s Full Line programme with tractors, combine harvesters, forage harvesters and sprayers advanced significantly,” is how the Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Board summed up this success story, wishing Martin Richenhagen all the best for the future.
Fendt in the time of coronavirus
“Since March 2020, we’ve been working intensively to overcome the consequences of the coronavirus crisis. From late March through late April 2020, despite a good order situation, we had to halt tractor production, and also a large share of harvesting-equipment production, for five weeks. The cause was a production stoppage at supplier plants in Italy and France due to the coronavirus pandemic. We used the time to prepare the company and implemented a great number of measures to maximally protect all our employees. Since early May, production at Fendt facilities has continued without coronavirus-related interruptions. By the end of September, we were able to make up a good half of the tractor-production backlog through additional shifts,” is how Christoph Gröblinghoff explained the current situation during the pandemic, adding: “The coronavirus will keep us on our toes in 2021 too. But by now we’ve learned to live and work with it. As a food producer, agriculture is of systemic importance and, with a few exceptions, has been almost untouched by the coronavirus crisis. So the agricultural machinery business is developing mostly normally. Regional drought and, currently, African swine fever have a much bigger impact on agriculture.”
Production resumed with significant safety measures
The CEMA Business Barometer
“Somewhat better figures in January and February 2020 quickly plunged into a deep recession in March, April and May because of the coronavirus,” said the Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Board about sentiment in the European agricultural machinery industry, referring to the monthly business-climate index – the CEMA (European Agricultural Machinery Association) Business Barometer. “Nobody knew how hard the virus would hit agricultural machinery businesses and markets. When it became relatively clear fairly quickly that the agricultural machinery business would keep running stably, sentiment improved just as quickly. In September, the industry is seeing slight growth in sales volumes compared with the same period last year.”
The tractor market in Germany: pleasingly stable
“The tractor market in Germany in the coronavirus year of 2020 is stable, which is very pleasing. From January through August 2020, 21,219 new tractors were registered. That’s almost six percent more than the same period last year. Farmers and agricultural contractors aren’t letting themselves get discouraged and are wisely investing in new machinery. Over the first eight months, Fendt managed to further strengthen its leading market position. Starting with tractors rated 0 hp and above, with a 23.3% market share, and 51 hp and above, with a 28.4% market share, manufacturer Fendt ranks first by a wide margin over competitors. And, of course, we’re pleased that over many years we’ve been able to improve our position in the large-tractor segment. In the power range above 200 hp, Fendt ranks first with a 40.1% market share. Almost every second tractor rated 400 hp and above is a Fendt from the 900 or 1000 Vario series. We’re very pleased with the growing demand among agricultural contractors and large agricultural enterprises,” said Christoph Gröblinghoff with satisfaction, and emphasized: “An important realization in the time of coronavirus is that the long-term trust relationships between Fendt dealers, Fendt customers and Fendt as a manufacturer became the basis for remote purchasing even during a crisis.”
The Fendt 900 Vario
Fendt continues to grow its market share in Europe
“Tractor markets in Europe are developing in completely different ways,” stated Christoph Gröblinghoff, focusing on the regions important for Fendt in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. He excluded the markets of Turkey, the Middle East and Algeria, since these mainly demand smaller machines, which Fendt doesn’t offer. “In Europe, there are markets with growing or stable volumes, such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and Austria. But there are also large-volume markets, some of which are seeing double-digit market declines. For example, France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. Overall, we expect the European market to decline by around 6% – from 171,000 units in 2019 to approximately 160,000 units in 2020.”
“It’s encouraging that, according to current market data, Fendt is steadily growing its market share. Today, Fendt’s market share in Europe exceeds the 10-percent mark. This is the result of joint efforts by Fendt’s regional dealers and Fendt’s sales and marketing departments.
