John Deere has taken a huge hit to its profits in its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of this year, compared to that of 2023.
Revenue was down 28% in the same period, underlining the difficult trading conditions experienced recently.
The final quarter was particularly brutal and it drew the annual results down to a reduction of 38% for revenue and fall in 35% for profit over the company’s 2024 trading year.
John Deere’s response is to note that the results “demonstrate solid execution despite ongoing market challenges”, which is likely to translate as it could have been worse if we hadn’t reacted to the situation.
Bleak 2025 forecast
The company is not expecting a great improvement any time soon, noting that it expects overall net income for 2025 to be $5.0 to $5.5 billion compared to $7.1 billion for 2024.
CEO of John Deere, John May, does not swell on the poor results for 2024, instead, reassuring customers and shareholders alike that the company will continue to invest ion the future to ensure it remains a strong business and will remain capable of future growth.
These results and forecasts come at a time when the trade is starting to feel confident once more, as milk prices remain steady and tillage margins have not been so badly affected as some had feared.
Coupled with a good autumn which allowed late grazing and the winters crops to be sown in a timely manner, the mood of optimism within Ireland’s machinery trade was palatable at last month’s FTMTA show
Deeres figures will also strengthen the hand of AGCO in its ongoing dispute with TAFE, the latter of which has has held John Deere up as an example of how AGCO should be performing.
In early November, ACCO announced that its sales for 2024 were down just 24.8% for the year, although the company holds a different accounting cycle to that of Deere and the figures are not directly comparable.
