Despite challenging conditions in the farm machinery industry, Pottinger’s turnover grew by 2% – to €308 million – during the 2016/2017 financial year.
Accounting for over half (58%) of sales during the period, the grassland equipment sector remains the most important for Pottinger. It says that poor grain prices prompted a slight fall in demand for its tillage equipment and seed drills.
Export markets are central to its growth. Exports sales, from the Austrian-based manufacturer, account for 88% (€270 million) of overall turnover.
Image source: Shane Casey
60% of sales are achieved in just six countries. These are Germany, Austria (its home market), the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Ukraine and France.
A new harvesting equipment factory is planned for St. Georgen, which is near Grieskirchen (Pottinger’s base). The first phase of production from this facility is expected to come on stream in 2021.
Who or what is Pottinger?
The company was founded by Franz Pottinger in the region of Grieskirchen – way back in 1871; his fledgling product was a forage cutter.
His son – Alois Pottinger – took over in 1909; by that time the product portfolio had extended to mills, balers and threshers.
Fast forward to 1950; the growing company was effectively mass producing hay loaders and windrowers. The 1950s also saw the third generation of the Pottinger family take over – namely Alois, Hans and Heinz.
1960 saw the advent of Pottinger’s novel ‘hay tractor’. The 1960s also saw the company enter the silage wagon arena – a major development and one that would lay the building blocks for future growth.
Pottinger branched into the tillage machinery sector in 1975, with the acquisition of a Bavarian plough factory in Landsberg am Lech (Germany).
The fourth generation of the Pottinger family took over in 1991; Klaus and Heinz would plot the company’s course into a new millennium.
The 1990s (1999 to be exact) also saw the arrival of the Jumbo self-loading silage wagon. The advent of this large-scale machine, according to Pottinger, really intensified the “battle of the systems” – pitting the self-loading wagon against the self-propelled forage harvester.
Image source: Shane Casey
The dawn of the new millennium saw Pottinger take over the Satechnik factory in Bernburg (Germany); this deal was done in 2001. This enabled it to extend its tillage range – with new mechanical and pneumatic (air) drills.
The Austrian conglomerate notched up a ‘Machine of the Year’ award in 2006, thanks to its Alpha Motion front-mounted mower. A further international award followed in 2007, from the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society in Scotland, for its ISOBUS package.
2007 also saw the commissioning of a new plant in the Czech Republic and a new customer service centre in Grieskirchen. A year later, it opened a brand new assembly facility at its home factory.
Three new (export) sales subsidiaries were opened in 2012 – namely Belgium, the UK and Ireland.
A year later, the Aerosem seed drill was named ‘Machine of the Year’ at Agritechnica. It also won further awards, notching up accolades at the Polagra-Premiere agricultural trade fair in Poland, the FIMA show in Spain and the Agraria show at home in Austria.
One of the most recent high-profile launches involved the Impress round baler; Pottinger unveiled its first batch of these eye-catching machines back in 2015.
What’s next? Watch this space…
