In the "heart" of Vaderstad

This year, the Swedish Vaderstad-Verken AB turns 50! In the anniversary year, AgroCentre and Vaderstad have given Russian farmers an unforgettable present, arranging a visit for them to the very "heart" of Vaderstad.

When Rune Stark, the founder of the industrial group, designed a harrow for his farm, he couldn't imagine that 50 years later his product would become a runner-up in sales of agricultural machines in Russia. It all began in 1962 with a small domestic workshop where Rune Stark and his wife Siv worked. Over time, their four children came to support their production. Today, Christer is chairman of the board of directors, Christine is director-general, Andreas is director for production, and Bo is director for sales in Scandinavia. This is a truly unique enterprise where all family members found a job for themselves.

Thus, a small business turned into a company with 12 divisions across the world and 950 personnel. The surface area of the enterprise in a small town of the same name, Vaderstad, measures 5 hectares. Despite its large scale now, Vaderstad has preserved the homely atmosphere, openness and hospitality.

During the factory tour, the guests noted the complete automation of the manufacturing process. Each unit is tested in extreme conditions. To better see the process, the guests moved to the local quarry where the equipment operates on stones.

“One day of such a test equals five in the field”, says Philip Vestman, Vaderstad import operations manager. “Such tests enable us to quickly discover the weak points of the equipment and to eliminate them before they come onto the market”.

An impressive conclusion to the Russian farmers' visit was the demonstration of Vaderstad farming equipment. Along with famous machines like Rapid, Seed Hawk, Top Down, and Carrier, the guests were introduced to the Tempo inter-row seeder, which instantly was named "the air gun" for its seed embedding method. In the end, Christine Stark made the guests a present of 20,000 euros in the form of a discount for purchase of the Rapid RDA 600C seeder. Those wishing to enjoy the present were not long in coming forward.

“This is an exclusive bonus for our guests”, explains Christine Stark with a smile. “It is not only in connection with our anniversary. This year it will be 10 years since we sold our first Rapid seeder in Russia!”

Christine Stark, Vaderstad-Verken AB director general.

“What will our enterprise be like after 50 years? It's hard to say. To be sure, Russia will be the number one consumer of our products. The country's farming potential is very high. I suppose that the sale of soil tilling and seeding equipment to Russian farms will be roughly equal”.

Over 50 guests from different countries attended the 50th anniversary of the enterprise. Among them were guests from Russia. Congratulating the company, Nikolay Ivanishchev, AgroCentre director general, wished the business established by Siv Stark success on the global market and hoped the company will live through many more fifty year periods full of innovations.