Kuhn buys US tillage and drill maker Krause

French machinery giant Kuhn Group has bought Krause Corporation, a privately owned US maker of tillage equipment and grain drills located in Hutchinson, Kansas.


Krause was founded in 1916 and specialises in making primary and secondary tillage, strip-till and vertical tillage equipment, plus grain drills for tractors of 100-550hp. In 2010, the company’s revenues exceeded $61m and it has 230 employees. Kuhn Group has more than 3500 employees and had revenues of $870m in 2010.

Kuhn already has a big operation in the US with some 500 employees. It says that Krause’s high-hp tillage tools and grain drills will give it products suited to large grain farming areas, particularly eastern and central Europe. It will also give it an R&D and manufacturing centre for high-horsepower crop production machinery in the US midwest.

This is the second Kansas tillage and drill maker to be involved in a tie-up with a European firm. Great Plains Mfg, just 60 miles away, was in the news last year when it bought UK maker Simba.

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