Pictures from the Agco Tractor Plant in France

I'm glad you last two guys finally brought up the fact that nobody could sell tractors in the 80's due to the ecomony.  Everybody was talking just like A-C???  A-C had top of the line products in the mid 80's and I believe they could have survived in some way if like the four guys who formed AGCO could have just bought the agriculture division of A-C and did what they did with AGCO instead of selling if off to KHD.  Just my thoughts I guess.

I believe IHC went under a year or more before AC.  Biggest Farm equipment company in the world couldn't make it.  MF was hurting bad, JD was close to the edge, made some money with other products, (lawn and garden and building frames for motorhomes, etc.) Ford was being carried along by the car/truck division

The big problem AC had was the AG division was making money all along , that was money being used to shore up the whole corporation ; when farm equipment got slow , and then stood still ; it all went to hell quick ; they had other good bussinesses , but to many sucking the life out of them; the Coal Gassification had great promise for a while ; but it too came at a bad time in THE ECONOMY SITUATION ; That could have been huge , but as many INNOVATORS do; that much innovation takes money to pay off ; ALLIS just got caught with too many irons in the fire at a bad time

Despite any conjecture the lesson from history is that any company no matter how good their product is, how diversified they are or how big they are can go under and cease to exist.  AGCO is decent sized and has a decent product.  But they are poorly run and alienating their customer base during an economic downturn.  They also aren't diversified at all which they claim is a good thing but in who's world is that I don't know.

I see AGCO stock is up $1.15 this morning, makes you wonder.  One machine that would make sense for AGCO to market would be a extending boom forklift, like a JCB.  Most of the other ag type companies sell them although JD dropped the models they were selling, wonder why?

Allis Chalmers37 and Spud: You both make some very good points. I also think Agco should seriously consider purchasing the Allis-Chalmers name and logo if they can, and put it to some kind of use to redeem themselves to all the people that they've alienated. Don't see it happening though.

Forum: Farm Equipment
Topic: Pictures from the Agco Tractor Plant in France
Posted By: redline

I am pretty sure that AGCO will be disappointed in the amount of effort that many of the old diehard AC/Deutz-Allis/AGCO Allis dealers put into selling the Massey line. I imagine alot of them will drop AGCO all together, and many others will pick up another equipment line to sell. I think a large number of the AGCO dealers already had New Holland to work with, I am sure they will push on those even harder (even if they are uglier than a mud fence)

By not offering the full line of equipment and tractors from small tractors all the way up through the AGCOStars automatically through the orange dealers, the orange line was being set up to fail.

I totally agree. The Agco Allis dealers have been getting the shaft for years, not having the full line of equipment.

That was strange! I deleted that post because I thought it sounded incoherent, but it showed up anyway. I will confess to posting it originally, otherwise people will think it was just pulled out of thin air.

very simple guys....when you go order a new tractor...tell them you want it painted orange, if they say no, tell em then forget it i'll go buy a kabota! think they'll wanna miss a sale?

redline wrote: Here is another example of a marketing blunder that was corrected because of public outcry. http://www.kcci.com/money/25360260/detail.html See how you do that, AGCO? When you screw up, you fix it and go on. Ignoring the blunder doesn't do anyone any good. And of course there is this blunder: [TUBE]W6t7deaplgY[/TUBE]

I think the little dictator shreds 'em.

I used to work at Allis-Chalmers for 10 years, right up until 1985. I'm telling you all, I still miss that company and it will never be replaced for the void it left in my life. There was a tremendous amount of pride and dedication by alot of professional people, blue and white collar, to the product. The best people I've ever seen or met in business, worked for that company, so it's no wonder the tractors were well respected. One of the saddest days of my life was walking out of Allis-Chalmers Tractor Division on my last day of work in June '85. Anybody else posting here work there?

Also, I'm not really sure the reason the company went under had to do with management decisions. I think some of the new product ventures of the late 70's had an effect, but the bottom line was - the economy was the worst in 50 years back in the late 70's, early 80's. When you got 20+% prime rates and you're selling huge farm equipment, farmers couldn't afford to upgrade unless they had cash. Your average farmer didn't have the type of cash flow to spend on an 8550 - they took out loans. No farmer in their right mind would pony up several tens of thousands for a new tractor at 20+%. It was a crazy time in our country. The AC tractor division folded because the market had shrunk to the point where one of the major players alone could have support the volume demand of the entire market! That is a fact. At one point AC was making 60 tractors a day. Breakeven was something like 25 units, and in the end, there wasn't sufficient market demand to make those volumes. People always want to blame management, but trust me, management tried to negotiate new reduced wage and benefit contracts with the union, but the union leaders wouldn't budge. They (union) thought management was bluffing right up until the end. Those union guys made ridiculous wages for the times, and I'm not just talking hourly wage, I'm talking benefits. Those legacy costs destroyed the cost structure of the company to be competitive. Everybody gets some blame for this failure, but bottom line, it was the general market condition that didn't improve for 5 - 6 years of Reagans term. 79 to 85 were terrible years for business.

Edited by black_no_3 - 16 Nov 2010 at 2:50pm

What are they doing with a Gleaner there? Don't they realize that Laverda is now one of their core brands?

Edited by redline - 16 Nov 2010 at 4:48pm