Deere & Company (usually known by its brand name John Deere) is an American corporation based in Moline, Illinois, and the leading manufacturer of agriculturalmachinery in the world. It currently stands at 98th rank in Fortune 500 ranking. Deere and Company agricultural products, usually sold under the John Deere name, include tractors, combine harvesters, balers, planters/seeders, ATVs and forestry equipment. The company is also a leading supplier of construction plant, as well as equipment used in lawn, grounds and turf care, such as ride-on lawn mowers, string trimmers, chainsaws, snow-throwers and for a short period, snowmobiles.
John Deere products are known for their distinctive green and yellow colour scheme. The company's slogan is "Nothing runs like a Deere" and has a picture of a Deer as a logo, a pun on "nothing runs like a Deer."
Additionally, John Deere manufactures engines used in heavy equipment and provides financial services and other related activities that support the core businesses.
Deere & Company began when John Deere, born in Rutland (town), Vermont, USA on February 7, 1804 moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1836 to escape bankruptcy in Vermont. Already an established blacksmith, Deere opened a 1,378 square feet shop in Grand Detour in 1837 which allowed him to serve as a general repairman in the village, as well as a manufacturer of small tools such as pitchforks and shovels.
Even more successful than these small tools was Deere's cast-steel plough, which was pioneered in 1837. Prior to Deere's introduction of the steel plough, most farmers used iron or wooden ploughs which stuck to the rich Midwestern soil and had to be cleaned very frequently. The smooth sided steel plough solved this problem, and would greatly aid migration into the American Great Plains in the 19th and early 20th century.
Deere's production of ploughs began slowly, but increased greatly when he departed from the traditional business model of making equipment as it was ordered and instead began to manufacture ploughs before they were ordered and then put them up for sale. This allowed customers to see what they were buying beforehand, and word of the product began to spread quickly.
Early Partnerships[]
In 1842, Deere entered a business partnership with Leonard Andrus and purchased land for the construction of a new two-story factory along the Rock River in Illinois. This factory, named the "L. Andrus Plough Manufacturer", produced about 100 ploughs in 1842 and approximately 400 ploughs during the next year. Despite the success, Deere's partnership with Andrus ended in 1848, when Deere relocated to Moline, Illinois in order to have access to the railroad and the Mississippi River. In Moline, Deere formed a partnership with Robert Tate and John Gould and quickly built a new 1,440 square feet factory in 1848. Production at the plant rose quickly and, by 1849, the Deere, Tate & Gould Company was producing over 200 ploughs a month, and a two story addition to the plant was built to allow for further production.
Deere & Company[]
John Deere bought out Tate and Gould's interests in the company in 1853, the same year that he was joined in the business by his son Charles Deere. The business continued to expand until 1857, when the company's production totals reached almost 1,120 implements per month. Then, in 1858 a nationwide financial recession took a toll on the company. In order to prevent bankruptcy, the company was reorganized and Deere sold his interests in the business to his son in law, Christopher Webber, and his son, Charles Deere, who would take on most of his father's managerial roles. The company was reorganized one final time in 1868, when it was incorporated as Deere & Company. The company's original stockholders were Charles Deere, Stephen Velie, George Vinton, and John Deere, who would serve as president of the company until 1886. Despite this, it was Charles who effectively ran the company. In 1869, Charles began to introduce marketing centres and independent retail dealers to advance the company's sales nationwide.
John Deere died in 1886, and the presidency of Deere & Company passed to Charles Deere. By now the company was manufacturing a variety of farm equipment products in addition to ploughs, including wagons, corn planters, cultivators. The company even expanded into the bicycle business briefly during the 1890s but the core focus of the company remained on agricultural implements. Increased competition during the early 1900s from the new International Harvester Company led the company to expand its offerings in the implement business, but it was the production of gasoline tractors which would come to define Deere & Company's operations during the twentieth century.
The Tractor Business starts[]
In 1912, Deere & Company president William Butterworth, who had replaced Charles Deere after his death in 1907, began the company's expansion into the tractor business. Deere & Company briefly experimented with its own tractor models, the most successful of which was the Dain All-Wheel-Drive, but in the end decided to continue its foray into the tractor business by purchasing the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918, which manufactured the popular Waterloo Boy tractor at its facilities in Waterloo, Iowa. Deere & Company continued to sell tractors under the Waterloo Boy name until 1923, when the John Deere Model D was introduced. The company still manufactures most of its tractors in Waterloo, Iowa.
According to John Ratzenberger, host of the Travel Channel series "Made in America", Deere & Company never repossessed any equipment from American farmers during the Great Depression. This was revealed during the shows profile of Deere & Company.[1]
In 1956, Deere & Company bought-out the German tractor manufacturer, Heinrich Lanz AG. (See Lanz Bulldog). This allowed Deere & Co to expand in the growing European market, with locally built tractors, as German farmers moved to larger farms, from the earlier family farm model. Several local producers stopped manufacturing small tractors at this time as they dropped out of the farm machinery business. They went back to there core engineering businesses, as demand fell and the competition from firms such as John Deere and International Harvester offered higher hp models from their American ranges.
where's the rest of the history between 1923 and 2006 ? Please help fill out this section as original entry has nothing for this period of the companies history !
As of 2006, the Deere & Company employs approximately 47,000 people in 27 countries worldwide, including the United States, Turkey, Canada, United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, Poland, and Mexico, among many others. Inside the United States, the company's primary locations are its administrative center in Moline, Illinois, as well as various locations in the Midwest and southeastern United States. Most manufacturing sites are in Iowa or Illinois, as well as locations in Europe. Carl Westby is known as the person that coined the phrase "Nothing runs like a Deere."
Major North American factories include:
Waterloo Works (foundry, engines, large agricultural tractors, drive trains, service parts, product engineering center) Waterloo, Iowa
John Deere Forestry Oy, Joensuu, Finland works: Cut-to-Length Forestry equipment
John Deere Reman - Edmonton: Remanufacturing facility for hydraulic and powertrain components for off-highway products. (C&F Division) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Operating Units[]
Deere & Company is currently organized into three major equipment divisions and six primary operating units:
In 2008 it was announced that John Deere would be revising the model numbering and unifying it across all markets.[2]
Handling machinery[]
John Deere also markets a range of Telescopic handlers for Agriculture and Industrial use. Some of the models were originally derived from the Matbro lines that John Deere took over. John Deere then built machines for a period for Caterpillar in the UK at a plant in Leicester. This unit was latter sold to Caterpillar.
John Deere is one of the bigger brands of Combine harvester sold in the UK and around the world.
The market several models with a special Hillmaster system fitted to facilitate operating across steep hillsides and also some models with track s or 4-wheel drive systems.
Combine range[]
This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to be considered complete. Relavent additions are welcome and you can help by expanding it.
ReGen Technologies - remanufacturing facility for engines and engine components
Ningbo Benye Tractor & Automobile Manufacture Co. Ltd. Ningbo, China - Chinese Tractor Company
Collaborations and Partnerships[]
North American distributor of Hitachi-branded construction equipment.
Deere-Hitachi, located in Kernersville, NC, is jointly owned by Deere & Company and Hitachi, and manufactures hydraulic excavators for the North American market.
A partnership with Bell Equipment of South Africa provided Deere with articulated dump truck technology. In exchange, Bell manufactures Deere backhoe loaders in South Africa for distribution internationally.
