Fendt at Agritechnica 2013 – Top Atmosphere, Top Customers, Top Success

Once again, the Agritechnica 2013 is an exhibition that sets new records. On 420,000 square metres, the entire industry presented itself to some 450,000 visitors to the world’s leading agricultural equipment and machinery exhibition. The exhibition not only set a new record in terms of the number of visitors, but also for exhibitors as well as in its internationality. For the first time, all 27 exhibition halls were occupied with 2,900 exhibitors from 47 countries. The exhibition was therefore fully booked. And accordingly there were crowds of visitors at the Fendt stand in Hall 9, where the premium brand and trend-setter in agricultural engineering presented its new innovations in the areas of tractors, combines and balers.

“There was a very positive atmosphere here at our stand. The agricultural industry is currently in a stable economic environment, so that we were able to conduct excellent, concrete talks here with our customers and dealers,” summed up Peter-Josef Paffen, Vice President and Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board. This impression is substantiated by the DLG exhibitor survey. Seventy percent of the farming and forestry enterprises said they plan to invest in the next two years. “We already reached our sales target of 18,000 tractors before the Agritechnica. Here at the exhibition we are already talking about orders for the upcoming year. Thanks to our new factory, we are ready to deliver and also aim to attain these high sales figures in 2014. The Agritechnica has given us the right impetus and tailwind for this,” said Paffen.

Fendt presented its complete line-up – from the 200 V/F/P specialty tractor range with 70 hp to the 939 Vario with 390 hp – on 2,550 square metres within the 7,200-square metre AGCO stand in Hanover. There was an especially high interest in the innovations. Under the motto “Experience Fendt. Making things happen.”, Fendt presented new high-horsepower machines in all areas this year. The new 800 and 900 Vario high-horsepower tractors convinced visitors with a number of new technical innovations, such as the integral tyre pressure regulation system VarioGrip. Fendt also presented the new combines from the Fendt X-Series with hybrid technology and the most powerful Fendt of all times – the Fendt Katana 85 forage harvester with 850 hp. “The demand for Fendt harvesting machinery is climbing noticeably. Today we also offer high-quality products in this area,” commented Paffen. The topic of precision farming was presented at both the Variotronic and the AGCO Fuse stands. In this area, Fendt now also offers SectionControl and the AGCOMMAND telemetry system. On the basis of the Fendt X Concept, visitors were able to get a first impression of the direction development in agricultural engineering will take regarding electrical drives for tractors.

Innovative technology is rewarded with awards. Fendt received the silver medal from the DLG for its new flat-sealing hydraulic coupling system. The “Machine of the Year” was awarded to the Fendt 516 Vario for tractors and the new 9490X for combines. Fendt also received the official DLG test mark for the VarioGuide RTK automated steering. “Of course, it is a great pleasure to reap awards. However, it is important to us that we bring innovations onto the market that provide real benefits for our customers and take all of their requirements for practical use into consideration. The new hydraulic coupling system is an excellent example for this, because it enables farms to convert to modern hydraulic systems flexibly, step by step, and there are no oil leaks during handling,” added the Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board.

At the Agritechnica, AGCO/Fendt finds the ideal environment to present its new technologies. “The Agritechnica is an innovation driver and provider of ideas for global agriculture and has impressively demonstrated the growing worldwide significance of farming and agricultural engineering,” explained Dr. Reinhard Grankdke, The share of visitors from outside of Germany is continually climbing, in 2013 every fourth visitor came from abroad – a new peak. “In Hanover, we meet our customers from many different countries. These included investors from Central and Eastern Europe as well as large groups from North America, who we gave a better understanding of our latest technology. We took this as an opportunity to gear up our exhibited machines accordingly and presented a 724 Vario with row crop tyres for the North American market for the first time at our stand. Overall, it was an excellent mix of expert farmers and entrepreneurs, which is becoming increasingly more international,” explains Peter-Josef Paffen. Hall 9, where the AGCO Corporation with Fendt and its other brands was found at the Agritechnica, proved to be a true magnet for visitors. The Fendt stand was one of the best visited stands over all the exhibition days. “With a team of more than 150 employees from Marketing and Sales, we were there for our customers at the Agritechnica and are pleased with the high-level conversations and the great resonance our brand found with customers,” summed up Paffen.