O/T, But Where Did WFE Go?

(a recent former AC product mgr - we were good friends- great guy who landed the tractor mktng job at White) he saw me and said oh "S--t"  , no one else knew us and there was a quite uneasy time til we both burst out laughing.  )

Poor jack - we did a walk through of the Coldwater plant ( we did not drink the sulphur water from the coolers) .. During the tour a fork lift dropped a huge deutz engine on the floor and it exploded - then the fork lift ran over it and almost overturned, the overhead paint rack was dripping paint from due to a curing fan that was not functioning thus dropping NI orange paint on tourist, the disc mower line was down waiting on parts and when we pulled back the curtain we found a poker game in progress and then on the tractor line the 'sick bay' was full and when they did the roll test on the end of the line on a large White tractor a line blew off and covered everyone in oil mist.  Jack just sat down, lowered his head and commence pounding it with his clip board.  He accused me of jinxing the day :-) ..   AGCO bought lines before we could sign the tractor contract ; we were already a NI dealer - we did sell a few of the White tractors.... AND I will state this again - I knew Jim Seaver of Agco - the money manager of the founders - he told me personally - Agco would have never grown - just held its own with a minute market share and then might not have survived - had they not acquired MF... this gave the company a Worldwide presence and dealers that they would have never had.  The ashes of the old AC company laid a foundation - that AGCO built upon - had it not been for AGCO - AC products would have had the fate of  Studebaker - a distant memory.   It all had to work together...

I heard Bob Ratliff tell of his first European meeting.  He had shieks, secretaries of state, a kinship of Matama Ghandi - a relation to Gaddafi of Lybia  (MF sold 16,000 trannys to Lybia yearly w/o engines - Muammar had a contract with Perkins)  Mr. Ratliff was blown away with the spider roots of MF and where they led at the time.  They cleaned the 'bleeding roots' very quickly  - as in IMT and other illegal copies of MF tractors/parts built in E. Europe.   

Boss Man wrote: Several companies White and Allis included after Duetz got tired of them got bought out to form Agco. Agco became the distributor for Massey parts until they were able to actually absorb Massey.  Agco wanted Massey for their transmission design. The last few years of the Agco tractors were Massey trans with a different engine.

I think you're confusing Massey and Fendt

The last few years of the AGCO tractor had a Fendt transmission and used the Sisu engine.  AGCO owns both these companies.  IMO the Massey transmission was a complete piece of junk.  It was used in the smaller frame Challenger, Agco, and Massey tractors, and after the Fendt purchase the smaller frame Challenger and Agco tractors could be fitted with the Fendt transmission but I believe it was long after that before the Massey was fitted with the Fendt transmission as the Massey wasn't considered their premium line. 

The larger frame AGCO Allis and AGCO White tractors were fitted with Funk transmissions till AGCO bought Fendt then shortly after that White went away and all the AGCO tractors were fitted with the Fendt transmission including the small frame but I believe the Massey transmission was still available on just the small frame Agco's and Challenger.

Then later the Agco brand was completely done away with and replaced by just the Challenger brand.  My guess was they kept the Cat dealership network and then tried to force Massey on all the old AC dealers that just sold AGCO tractors and Gleaner combines.  At least that was the claim my local dealer told me.  Luckily they were able to get the Challenger dealership because they new they had little to no chance to sell a Massey branded tractor.

I think this is pretty accurate I'm sure Tbran could give the exacts.

Dale I really don't understand why people care about the color, a product is a product, but out here in these parts most farmers absolutely will not have a Massey.  Strangely the last local equipment dealer to go out of business was the Massey dealer which also sold Ford cars and trucks.  At one time there was a lot of Massey equipment but today outside of Massey branded hay equipment it is almost non existent.  The majority of this area is either JD or CaseIH.  There is a fair amount of Gleaner combines around and Hesston hay equipment but that's the majority of the AGCO presence. 

I own a DT240a and a 545b Challenger both have CVT and I personally think that transmission is second to none.  Would I buy another AGCO tractor yes, do I care about what badge it has no, but I seem to be atypical as most farmers want a more "name brand" even if it's subpar. 

1. Robert Ratliff retired after reaching mandatory retirement age (a story there also)

2. Ed and John were killed in a plane crash - no relation to anyone

3. Agco did drop market share after dropping Agco tractors

4. The market share has been regained

5. Agco's market share in under 100 hp tractors has increased in higher %

   than any previous time in AGCO or MF or any AGCO heritage lines in the last 2 years

6. Agco - MF Fendt Challenger market share over 100 hp has increased almost every

   year in small per cent increases.

7. if one takes the industrial sales away from CNH  - world wide Agco is close to them 

   in AG sales.

 

IF one thinks there is some machine that puts out Green Red or whatever color machines, you are wrong - it is a group of people just like us that struggle every day to buy, build, sell , finance, service and collect the bills on ever  product that rolls out the doors of plants around the world and are transported worldwide as well.  Farmers buy from local dealers who are there to support them in time of need unless they are capable of working miracles themselves when things go wrong.  Yes one can go to machinery pete or fastline occasionally and that's ok.  But to think one can 'punish' a brand by trading off a piece of machinery in spite is a very naïve immature action.  If a producer can better himself by going to a different brand then by all means do it.  That usually means that a relationship has been broken  with the local dealer who had supported the customer for years - like Tip O'neal  said all politics are local.  Deere is mentioned here  = Deere sold its sole to the corporate stockholder devil a few years ago when it FORCED out GOOD single store dealers. I have friends who were Deere dealers who had corp sales vp's come to their house and tell them if one spouse or dad passed the contract would be taken and given to the mega dealer -and they did and have nation wide with few exceptions - so much for caring individually for the customer or family owned dealership.  Say what you will about Agco , but when a customer has an issue - there is a high per cent of resolution if the customer is reasonable  and wants to work with them- from major issues to nit picking stuff  - we deal with it daily.  This goes for the small guys too, not just the big time operators... Agco is not perfect, ha, I uh discuss, with them daily over issues. Within reason we have taken care of customer issues down through the years to the customers satisfaction with very few exceptions, and that is from AC to DA to MF..... and yes there are still a few old AC guys with Agco.