Combine to make Canadian debut

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/05/2012 (5060 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHEN Russian combine manufacturer Rostselmash Ltd. bought 80 per cent of Buhler Industries in 2007, the question was how long it would take before Rostselmash combines were sold in North America and Versatile tractors in Eastern Europe.

The Winnipeg-built tractors are now selling strongly in Eastern Europe where commercial credit has been restored and millions of dollars are being invested in agricultural infrastructure.

Those export sales helped power Buhler Industries to the most successful six months in its history — with sales of $179 million.

Guidance from company officials says the rest of the year will also produce record financial results.

That optimism is partly fuelled by the arrival of the first shipment of Rostselmash combines for sale in Canada in the next few weeks.

Rostselmash already controls about 60 per cent of the eastern European combine market and is responsible for close to 20 per cent of global combine production. The Versatile/Rostselmash combines will be available in Canada for this crop year and in the United States next year.

Willie Janzen, Buhler’s chief financial officer, said the company has been working on entering the North American combine market for a couple of years now.

“We don’t want to introduce anything into the market that will be here today, gone tomorrow,” Janzen said. “We’re making sure they are ready for North America.”

After they land in Canada, Rostselmash’s Torum 760 combines will be rebranded into the Versatile RT490 — including Versatile’s signature red colour — with some minor tweaking at the company’s Clarence Avenue factory.

“We’ve tested them in pretty much every crop grown in North America to determine how they compare in terms of power and capacity,” said Adam Reid, Buhler’s marketing director. “The overall results were better than we expected so we are hammering forward on importing the combines.”

Reid would not disclose the number of units that will be coming or the kind of sales expectations the company has this year.

But he said while it might be a daunting and risky task to try to introduce a brand new $400,000 to $500,000 piece of equipment into the market, it is more manageable for a company like Buhler that has a well-established distributor network and some long-standing brand loyalty.

“It’s a little more complicated than bringing in a new tractor to market, but it’s not night and day,” Reid said.

“We go through a lot of the same things — talk to farmers about what they like and what they don’t like.”

The Versatile name dates back to the ’60s and according to Reid, has a loyal following and has built a reputation for being reliable, easy to service and long-lasting.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

 

Combine sales around the world

2,899: combines sold in Canada in 2011 (to Nov. 30), 7.3 per cent more than 2010

295: year-to-date combines sold in Canada to Mar. 31, 2012, 17.8 per cent fewer than in the same period of 2011

1,319: year-to-date combines sold in the U.S. to Mar. 31, 2012 — 43.2 per cent fewer than the same period last year

575: year-to-date combines sold in Russia to Feb. 28, 2012 — 27 per cent fewer than in the same period the year before

— Source: Association of Equipment Manufacw