CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY ‘There are no boundaries for us where growth is concerned’ solution for the cultivation of potatoes. Take planting and rotary tilling, for example. These are two activities that we’re increasingly integrating. We adjust the rotary cultivator to the planting machine or the other way around. The reason we do ‘We’ve promised our shareholders to adopt a growth strategy with an innovative character for the coming years’ this is because we want a better result. You can see this in our storage machinery as well. We link the different machines through similar control systems and we design suitable constructions to minimise the drop heights. The end users discovered these advantages even faster than expected. It already starts with the handling of the machine. The user gets to work with the same control boxes, couplings and interfaces. You’ll find the same plus points in the fields of maintenance and repair, wear parts, bearings, even the parts in the controls are the same.’ Since you’ve been a full liner, you force the dealers to sell only your product line. Will this continue to apply if you get more brand names in your supply programme due to takeovers? ‘Yes, we want agricultural mechanisation companies to choose one brand, also after takeovers. And that’s only logical, I think. To be able to provide good service, it’s important for both the dealers and for us that the sales team and the mechanics have enough scope to get experience with the machinery. We support them with courses and training programmes, and we put a lot of energy and money into that. And that’s necessary because, in order to be able to start up a modern lifter at an end user, you can’t do without skilled, well-trained staff nowadays. As a mechanisation company, you can employ expert mechanics with many years of experience, who can easily replace bearings, pumps and sieving webs on any type of lifting machine. However, not everybody can set up software and associated electronics in our lifting machines; this requires specialised skilled workers whom we train ourselves. You understand that it isn’t profitable to train salesmen and mechanics who rarely work with our products. I’d like to add that as far as the quality of the mechanics and salesmen who work for Dutch dealers is concerned, I can only conclude that they work at a very high level. These are all extremely well-trained people. They are a real example for us in Belgium and many other European countries. But whether it’s the Netherlands, Belgium or another country in the world, for us dealers are and will always be of great importance to provide specialist service, as fast as possible if necessary, certainly during the busiest periods in the growing season.’ Can we expect more takeovers in a view to a more varied machinery supply? ‘I think that, for the moment, we can carry on with what we have right now. Two major acquisitions within a relatively short period of time not only cost a lot of money but also use considerable energy. It already takes at least two years to introduce a newly-purchased product onto the market. You need time to make it also a commercial success as well and we allow ourselves that time. Moreover, we’ve also made other investments during that period. As you know, we put a new assembly hall for lifting machinery into service last spring. That hall was really needed. The demand for our lifters was so great, that we nearly suffocated due to a shortage of space. Thankfully, that problem is now over.’ We haven’t really seen any trail-blazing innovations in recent years as far as potato machinery is concerned. And especially not in lifters, or are we mistaken? ‘Why don’t you ask that question to potato growers or contractors who started with a first generation Puma and now work with the latest version, the Puma 3. From a distance, it might look like only an evolution, but for those working with them, it really is a revolution. For example, aspects such as haulm ‘The processing industry is a major driving force in the potato sector’ cutting, cleaning and lifting capacity have improved enormously after three generations. A lot has meanwhile changed in the areas of software and control systems and this will only continue in the coming years. However, what I don’t think will change overnight is the size of the harvesters. With the fourrow machines, we’re just about at our maximum for now. The reason we can’t make them bigger is mainly due to the rules of the road traffic acts in Europe. It’s the requirements for maximum height, width and axle load that are making it impossible How are the sales of the storage machinery at the moment, because that’s still quite new in your programme, isn’t it? ‘Let me begin by saying that I am immensely proud of our products from what was formerly Climax in Veendam. The new receiving hopper, dual belt and store loader models that we currently run in our programme, all radiate the AVR look. This is a feast of recognition for our customers. Not only because of the colour, but they also recognise the robust structure they know from our harvesters, and things like the simple operation and accessibility of the machines for maintenance. What makes me especially proud is the positive attitude of our people in Veendam. We really don’t have to move the production to Roeselare, things are going very well up there. Our staff in the north are very much part of our company and the products we make. They’re fighting like lions to make it a success.’ 6 Potato World 2017 • number 2 Pagina 5
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