New Record Year for LEMKEN
Thanks to the new Juwel 2011 generation of ploughs, sales of ploughs rose markedly again.
LEMKEN is boosting its activities in China with the construction of an assembly plant in Qingdao
A considerable increase in turnover of 31 % is evidence that the LEMKEN success story is back on track after two years of a slight downturn. Sales of 266 million euros signify a new record value for the agricultural engineering specialists.
"This means that agricultural engineering is for the most part decoupled from the euro crisis“, said CEO Dr. Franz-Georg von Busse. In fact, stable prices for agricultural produce along with the recovery effect have led to increased farmer investment. The high level of utilisation at the start of the new year indicates that we can look forward to yet another excellent business development.
In the light of of this positive trend LEMKEN recruited 75 new employees last year. Working time accounts for the workforce, additional shifts throughout every area of the company along with the temporary workers enabled the jump in growth to be realised with a great deal of flexibility and working morale. At the close of the year more than 1,000 people were employed by the family company.
The positive business trend is supported in practically every sales region. While LEMKEN in the domestic market recorded an increase in turnover of 17 %, Russia, in particular, exceeded all expectations and saw it pick up on the record level achieved in 2008. Significant growth in turnover was recorded again in France, the largest foreign market for LEMKEN. The United Kingdom also saw a pleasing surge in demand. All in all, the export ratio rose to 69 %.
Almost every product group profited from the growth in all the regions. The rise in power harrows was particularly marked; just as good were sales of the seed drill product range, which was excellently augmented by the new "Compact-Solitair" with 6-metre machine with fertiliser placement. With regard to ploughs, the new Juwel generation of ploughs with the hard-wearing DuraMaxx bodies, saw a marked rise in sales.
The four DLG Silver Medals awarded at the Agritechnica along with the "Machine of The Year“ award presented by the German trade press for the new Diamant 12 semi-mounted plough are greatly appreciated confirmation of the innovative power behind LEMKEN. Last year, to make the product development process even more efficient, LEMKEN comprehensively improved the competences and procedures in the development and testing areas. Investment was concentrated on the production operation in Alpen, where the manufacturing facilities are being continuously upgraded and energetically optimised.
To set the course for further growth, LEMKEN is also investing to the same extent in the markets abroad. Among the most important projects are the new plough factory in India's Nagpur, where production will start up in 2012 with an initial capacity of 1,000 chiefly smaller-sized ploughs. Lemken also regards China to be another future market for modern agricultural engineering and it is planning to build an assembly plant in Qingdao. The sales organisation has been expanded with new subsidiaries for Scandinavia, Spain/Portugal and South Africa.
The uncertain general economic climate together with increasing cost prices for farmers are reasons enough to be tentative when making plans for 2012. However, even in view of the challenges facing the agricultural engineering industry in contributing to the global supply of food and energy, the agricultural engineering specialist is certain that it is ideally equipped to deal with them. With professional technology for soil cultivation, sowing and crop protection, combined with the finest in advice and the most wide-ranging service, LEMKEN intends to capitalise on this continuously growing demand.