New openings in the anniversary year!

Kverneland Group, Norway’s largest concern, is celebrating its 135th anniversary this year. Over the years the company has gone a long way from a village forge to an international corporation. The company has factories in 9 countries worldwide. In the anniversary year the company has opened a new production site in Russia.


Opening ceremony for the new factory took place in Lipetsk.

“The Russian market is a strategically important region to us”, says Robert Zisack, CEO of Kverneland Group CIS. “The colossal potential of the country as a supplier of food, the vastitude of farming land and the need to upgrade agricultural machinery enable us to forecast an increase in sales of our equipment of up to €50 million a year and to double our market share by 2018. With that, we are positive that high performance characteristics, reliability and efficiency of the Kverneland machinery will benefit the Russian agricultural industry.

Performed at the factory will be assembly, painting and welding of ploughs, cultivators, seed drills, fertilizer spreaders and sprayers. At the moment, the factory produces 10 units of Kverneland machinery. Next year the company plans to set up production of six more implements. The design capacity of the new production line is sufficient to release €14 million worth of machinery on an annual basis. The investment into construction of the factory in Lipetsk totaled €9 million.

“Opening of a state-of-the-art production site is the best proof of sound policy of the regional officials with regard to improvement of the investment climate”, says Nikolay Tagintsev, Deputy Head of Lipetsk region. “The Lipetsk farmers and the concern have been cooperating fruitfully since the beginning of the 2000s achieving with the help of the Kverneland products high performance indicators. And now the company has come still closer to them, the product selection has expanded. New workplaces with competitive working conditions have been created. I am sure the effect from the operation of the new factory will not be long in coming.”

Among other topics, a balance of the company’s work in Russia was struck in the course of the event. Since 2005 Kverneland has started actively developing the Russian market of agricultural machinery first by opening a trade and marketing office and later, in 2007, by locating the first local production site here. Over the years of its work on the Russian market, Kverneland Group CIS has tailored machinery sales and service in 80 regions and republics of the RF. Today the company’s dealership consists of 25 entities operating in Central Federal District, North-Western Federal District, South Federal District, Urals Federal District, and Siberian Federal District and in the Far East. As a result, the volume of the company’s sales in 2013 reached €20 million. With the sales growth the concern plans to strengthen the dealership net by locating dealership centres in each of new areas of presence. Contemplated is opening of two more new storages in addition to the existing one in Zelenograd.

Over the 135 years, Kverneland Group has become one of the largest manufacturers of agricultural machinery worldwide. The assortment of produced equipment includes a broad range of tillage and sowing implements, harvesting and forage machinery as well as machinery for fertilizer application and crop care. Among the company’s assets are more than 15 enterprises, located in Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, France, Russia and China. The representative offices of Kverneland Group operate in 19 countries. The equipment is exported into over 60 countries.

And all this started back in 1879, when Gabriel Ole Kverneland, an inventor, opened a small forge and started to manufacture sickles и scythes. Already in the 1890s he proved credibility of his enterprise and outperformed his competitors by constructing a water powered spring hammer which enabled him to increase production volumes up to 8, 000 scythes a year. Over the period of its existence, the manufacturer has scored lots of patents and inventions: release of a plough with spring protection, production of the world’s first pneumatic seed drill, development of a plough with Packomat system ensuring ploughing and seedbed preparation in a single pass. The company takes particular pride in its plough production technology the implements being the world-class standard in lightness and robustness. Since 1962, 60 world ploughing champions have made their choice in favour of the Kverneland ploughs to achieve the best results at professional international contests.


Kverneland Group has been one of the first companies to start developing ISOBUS-compatible equipment and currently it is an acknowledged leader in this area having released over 60 models of machinery operating by this technology. Today the concern is the only manufacturer of trailed equipment which develops its own electronics to go with its implements. Kverneland Group currently supplies agricultural products to 60 countries with its extensive dealership network comprising in excess of 7, 000 companies.

AgroCentre, one of the leading dealers of Kverneland Group, congratulates the partner on the anniversary and on opening of the factory, an event which is important both to dealers and farmers.

This year, AgroCentre is also going to make a gift to the Lipetsk farmers – to open the largest dealership centre for marketing and service of farming machinery and generally one of the largest service centres in Russia. Besides repair areas, spare parts storage, a show floor, set aside here will be a territory for test sowing and the trial of machinery novelties and new farming practices.