Claas reverses revenues slide to hit new record

Financial results for its 2010/2011 fiscal year show that Claas has managed to reverse the slide in sales income it experienced over the previous three years by hitting a new record of more than €3.3bn (£2.76bn) for the group as a whole.

“This represents a rise of 33.5% on the previous year’s figures and out-performs expectations,” says Dr Theo Freye, board spokesman. “Furthermore, income before taxes has more than tripled on the previous year’s value and the quality of the financial result has once again taken a leap, with the gross margin rising to 24.9%.”

Following a record year for the agricultural machinery industry as a whole in 2008, the relentless rise in Claas sales revenues stalled as the global financial crisis hit sources of credit and farmers’ willingness to invest.

Group sales in the financial year ending September 2009 fell back 10% to €2.9bn (£2.4bn) and dropped more than 14% the following year to €2.47bn (£2bn).

Continued investment in new and improved product programmes, which increased during this period in the face of the slide in income, is now paying dividends. Alongside a general recovery in agricultural markets worldwide, it has helped give Claas its best-ever headline sales figure.

A near 70% recovery in sales of equipment by the Claas Group’s components division and production engineering arm, which serves the automotive and aircraft manufacturing industries, clearly helped too. But since this accounts for just 6% of turnover, it was the 30%-plus increase in agricultural equipment sales revenues to €3.1bn (£2.58bn) that made the real difference.

Combine harvesters accounted for the biggest share of revenues and Claas says it saw an “emphatic rise” in its market position for these machines. Tractors make the next biggest contribution, with a sales increase of 20% for the year in Western Europe alone outstripping market recovery of some 13%.

In the year that Claas production of self-propelled forage harvesters hit the 30,000 mark, Jaguar sales reached record levels, with baler and forage wagons also performing strongly.

At €149m (£124m), R&D spend for the year was at a record level while efficiency improvements and cost-cutting measures helped raise margins and contribute to pre-tax profits that tripled from the year before to €255.3m (£204m).

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