The background to the reduction of turnover in 2009 is the situation facing many markets in Eastern Europe, where Amazone have the potential to regis-ter improvements in growth. Since the beginning of 2009 - as a result of the economic crisis - the exchange rate fluctuations in favour of the Euro meant that imports from the Euro-region became considerably more expensive. Es-pecially in Eastern Europe the financing of agricultural machinery is also only possible with restrictions due to the extremely high interest rates and the credit crunch in many places. In some countries protectionism measures make this trend worse. At the same time the noticeably lower production prices for agri-cultural products, higher stocks and higher production costs stifle the enthusi-asm for new investment.
Like all other manufacturers Amazone is especially affected in Russia by these scenarios. During the previous years this country had become the second most important export market after France. However, the Amazone owned production site in Russia was a positive factor in helping cushion this decrease.
Independent of the trends in Eastern Europe the turnover in Germany and the other West European countries was still at the level of the previous year. "This we owe however, not only to our extensive machinery programme, but also because of our sales partners" said Christian Dreyer. In many countries, such as, for example, Austria, Amazone has even expanded its market shares and registered increases in turnover; this also applies to some Eastern European markets as well including, for example, Rumania and Lithuania.
"In general it has to be stated that the demand for soil tillage equipment, seed drills and crop protection sprayers is still developing towards a desire for high class technology with larger working widths. At the same time the trend to-wards the farm overlapping operation of machinery by agricultural contractors, farmer co-operatives and machinery rings is continuing," Dr. Justus Dreyer re-ports: and: " here the Amazone strategy of the last few years is to promote precision agriculture and further develop the necessary technology for profes-sional users. We still want to transfer our position as the specialist in "Intelligent crop production" to all markets." This is why also in future more than 5 % of the total turnover will be invested in research and development.
Maintaining the permanent staff and strong team spirit
In reaction to the economic crisis the Amazone management, in the first half of the year of 2009, immediately introduced a comprehensive package of meas-ures. Included in this were the taking back of work transferred to other manu-facturers, the reduction in man hours and vacation balances, the reduction in production times and the checking of cost structures and investment plans. In order to take into consideration the drop in orders in 2009 additionally short-time working in some parts of the company was applied for. "Nevertheless we can count on the great motivation of the Amazone employees and their high identification with the company. Also in this more difficult year it became obvi-ous that the staff of the family owned Amazone were a truly committed team" said director Christian Dreyer. In view of the overall situation in the agricultural industry it is a success that the permanent staff of 1,500 employees in total could be maintained.
Organisation further optimised; projects realised
"We understand the actual situation also gives us a chance, not only to further develop the products, but also our level of service in order to fulfil the demands of our customers even better in future," Christian Dreyer states the target of further measures. Therefore, in 2009, the production process was further optimised, the transitory periods were reduced and the degree of service increased.
In the sales sector Amazone together with its partner bank, De Lange Laden developed new attractive finance schemes for customers. In addition, sales campaigns for original wearing and spare parts were especially successful and as an innovation for the sales organisation Amazone additionally introduced in the autumn a "product configurator”. With the aid of a user friendly programme that is accessed via the Amazone homepage its sales partners are now in the position, using a modular system, to compose an optimum machine specifica-tion for the customer during the sales discussion. In addition since autumn 2009 Amazone has expanded its internet presence with an even higher level of service, more offers, actual information and videos.
In Hasbergen-Gaste Amazone invested in an extension to the central spare parts stores and thus is now able to double in capacity its spare parts supply. In addition a new fertiliser test hall was built and so Amazone now has the most modern test facility for fertiliser spreaders in the world. At the new Hude-Altmoorhausen production site Amazone has started the production of large area seed drills. Additionally, with a new administrative building in For-bach/France and an extension building in Leipzig that were also opened meant that, in total, the Amazone Group invested approx. 10 mio € in 2009.
At the Tecklenburg-Leeden production site Amazone started the in-house pro-duction of SX self-propelled crop protection sprayers. For Amazone, as a rela-tively new supplier in the market for self-propelled machinery, the objective is to achieve considerably higher market shares in Europe in the medium term.
The Amazone directors attach great importance to the fact that, according to their philosophy of following a scheme of long-term financial security, is what always distinguishes Amazone . So Amazone wants to continue growing organically.
Extension of its international presence
In future Amazone will further strengthen its presence in the international mar-kets. An example in the more recent past is the foundation of its own sales of-fice in Hungary which resulted in the better market development there. Future markets are, for example, in countries such as Kazakhstan where Amazone is already successful in the market with ground water saving technology. Be-cause seen globally, the trend can be seen emerging of the enormous neces-sity for saving resources which is getting increasingly important. With the suit-able concepts and machinery which save water and protect soils Amazone is very well prepared for these future topics.
International communication
Regarding communication with end users in 2009 Amazone, as the competent partner in "Intelligent crop production" has further expanded its international training facilities. In the advisory and training centres, the so-called Active Centres, in Hasbergen-Gaste, Hude, Leipzig and Auneau in France, many customers and interested people have participated in specialist's seminars, training courses and field days dealing with topics around "Increasing efficiency in crop production".
Innovation campaign for Agritechnica
Also the presence at trade fairs helps in the communication with end users. No matter, whether at Demopark in the municipal sector or at Agritechnica for ag-ricultural technology, in total in 2009 Amazone was represented at about 30 in-ternational shows with its own stand.
In particular, the leading international trade fair, Agritechnica 2009, was very successful and provided Amazone with a new impetus. Under the umbrella of the "3C Cost Cutting Concept” Amazone has put innovations and efficiency into focus within its actual machinery programme and in this way has demon-strated how to achieve "more output with less cost" by utilising Amazone sys-tems. Here also, the interest of the visitors also pointed in the direction of very well equipped, efficient machinery that increasingly provides electronic additional functions such as, for example, the hydraulically driven, weigh cell spreaders or the fully electronically controlled crop protection sprayers with Distance-Control for the boom guidance. In addition special interest was given to the automatic GPS-Switch part section control for fertiliser spreaders and crop protection sprayers. Finally it became obvious that the new area efficient machinery such as, for example, the EDX precision air seeder or the new Cayena tine coulter seed drill are also going to be big trendsetters.
Visitors to the show were at the same time astonished and enthusiastic about "BoniRob". "BoniRob" is the latest autonomous field robot that Amazone developed in co-operation with the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück, Robert Bosch Ltd and other partners. With the first prototype Amazone demonstrated the future innovative possibilities of robot technology within agriculture.
On the occasion of Agritechnica 2009 Amazone was again awarded three innovation medals. Gold for the manufacturer overlapping ISOBUS operator concept with the CCI terminal, silver for smartControl, the automatic stripper finger control for EDX precision air seeders and a second silver for the LED individual nozzle lighting on crop protection sprayers that provides improved visibility of the spray fan at night. At the last seven Agritechnica shows the family owned company Amazone was awarded in total 21 gold and silver medals and in this way makes it one of the most innovative companies of the entire agricultural sector.
Also at the Agritechnica 2009 agricultural trade fair for the first time since establishing the Amazone foundation the official awarding of the Ama-zone "Innovation Award" took place. It was handed over by the chairman of the foundation board Carl-Albrecht Bartmer, President of the German Agricultural Society (DLG) and the Amazone directors. The awards went to the bachelor thesis by Friedrich Keunecke of Humboldt University Berlin and to the dissertation by Dr. Stefan Hinck of Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
Medium and long term goal prospects
"We will go on approaching the actual challenges with optimism. We will come out of the actual debility of some markets with more strength," both Amazone directors look to the future. In the medium and long term they see good prospects for agriculture and agricultural technology and want to go on maintaining the adopted course. They point out that agricultural products are the basis for food and renewable resources and - other than for example, cars - are always used even in difficult times. They understand the further growing population in the world, the decreasing arable land, and the unstable margins for producers, the international markets and geopolitical general conditions, as the big general agricultural challenges of the future.
So the Amazone directors stick to the five main objectives for the development of the group. These objectives are:
1.) the exploitation of new markets and the further development of the inter-national sales and service network in co-operation with local partners,
2.) leadership of innovation with the aid of new and future developments of innovative machinery and system concepts which are matched to the markets,
3.) the further extension of advisory activities based on the Active trials and training concept,
4.) the on-going development of efficient and lean production and admini-stration structures,
5.) the promotion and motivation of the employees.
Of course it is of benefit for Amazone that in agriculture new and modern technology and intelligent systems are always required to achieve more effi-ciency with - at the same time - less effort and in this way to finally gain suffi-cient farm incomes. Therefore, it is not only farmers that want to grow but also contractors will go on investing. "With our innovations, our machinery and sys-tems procedures and our motivation we at Amazone, together with our sales partners, will always be a strong and successful partner to farmers and agri-cultural contractors in the future."
The directors Christian und Dr. Justus Dreyer: "Also in the future Amazone will be a strong and at the same time successful partner for farmers and agricultural contractors."
