Danish fertiliser spreader manufacturer Bogballe is now owned by Erhvervsinvest – an investment company that is also headquartered in Denmark. The announcement has been carried by Danish newspaper Borsen.
The transaction is reportedly worth a total of DKK500 million (circa €67 million).
Up until this transaction, Bogballe was owned by the fourth generation of the Laursen family. The company was founded by Anders Peter Laursen in the village of Bogballe back in the 1930s.
The company still operates from the same location today.
Bogballe in Ireland
Here in Ireland, Bogballe fertiliser spreaders are imported and distributed by Atkins – the Cork-based agricultural machinery distributor. Atkins also distributes Bredal – best known for its high-capacity trailed spreaders.
Some years ago, Atkins staged a very eye-catching working demonstration in which seven Bogballe spreaders – each mounted on a Fendt tractor – were filmed working in the same field in Co. Offaly.
Bogballe is best known for its twin-disc, mounted fertiliser spreaders. Competing against the likes of Amazone, Vicon, Rauch and Sulky, run-of-the-mill models go to all sorts of customers.
Image source: Shane Casey
The highest-capacity, highest-spec units typically go to tillage farms, where on-board weigh cells, complex border spreading kits, ISOBUS and GPS control systems are often fitted.
Origins Of Atkins
Atkins’ own company history dates back to 1878, when John Atkins met Joseph Wolfe and founded an agricultural merchants at 49 South Mall, Cork.
A second outlet was opened in Cork city seven years later. A few years after that, Atkins acquired a nearby competitor – McKenzies.
Just before the turn of the century, the legal entity – John Atkins & Co. Ltd – was formed. It is now one of Ireland’s oldest surviving companies.
Another outlet was opened in 1900. A period of retrenchment followed, with the onset of the first world war, the war of independence and the civil war.
The company began to expand again during the 1920s. Atkins bought out Southern Seed Company and opened a further outlet in Dingle, Co. Kerry.
The 1930s and 1940s saw the onset of the ‘economic war’ and the second world war; which the company managed to survive.
Fast forward to the 1960s, when the farm machinery business relocated from Patrick’s Quay in Cork City to Carrigrohane Road on the outskirts. This marked the commencement of the importation of several lines of machinery from Europe, including Bredal and Bogballe.
In the 1970s, Ireland joined the EEC, which brought about greater demand for machinery. During that decade and the 1980s, additional branches at Bandon, Fermoy, Midleton were added – to consolidate the company’s strength in the farm machinery sector in Co. Cork.
Today, the business is owned by the Wolfe family, who bought out the remaining Atkins family shareholders back in 1996.
