An old name returns with brand new look
An old name returns with brand new look
A new brand but not a new
name… McCormick tractors
have returned to Doncaster.
Andy Collings discovers
how it all happened
OVER 50 years after the first McCormick tractor eased itself off the production line at Doncaster, the brand is now back in production.
This follows Landinis recent acquisition of the Case manufacturing site and the further purchase by the firm of the McCormick name to create McCormick Tractors International – a wholly owned subsidiary of Landini.
While there will be those who will reminisce over earlier McCormick machinery, most vintage machinery museums exhibit examples, there will also be those who recognise that there could rarely be a better chance of success for a new firm entering the tractor market.
The company inherits production facilities which claim to be the most advanced in Europe, access to a ready-made dealer network and certain rights to established products. And then, of course, there is the value of the adopted company name – McCormick.
The trail of events which led up to the launch of McCormick is an interesting one. It starts with the Case and New Holland merger which triggered alarm bells in the European Commission. The combined market share of Case, New Holland and Steyr would be excessive in Europe and could deny fair competitive practice, it reasoned.
So before approving the merger the Commission required CNH Global – the holding company of Case and New Holland – to sell the Doncaster site as a going concern, as well as the rights to the CX and MX-C models produced there. Undertakings regarding distribution and competition were also required.
The Commissions aim was for there to be no loss of choice to customers, no adverse effect on distribution and no loss of employment. It also wanted to create a new competitor in the tractor market to offset the loss of individual companies due to successive mergers.
In retrospect, it was a tall order, but all these objectives appear to have now been achieved: Landini is the purchaser, manufacture of established products continue, the 350-strong workforce remain employed and the new McCormick company has been formed.
So, what are the details? Under the agreement between Landini and CNH Global, Landini acquires the Doncaster plant and all commercial and technical rights to the CX and MX-C tractors.
The agreement also includes a contract for McCormick to build CX and MX-C tractors in Case livery for sale outside Europe and a contract to produce MX Maxxum 100hp – 160hp tractors for sale by Case dealers. McCormick can also produce its own re-engined and restyled version of the MX Maxxum.
Which is all good news for a new manufacturer. Sales and marketing director, Mike Edmond, says the agreement lays sound foundations for McCormick and its future development. "It ensures production volumes will remain at economic levels during the early stages of the business and provide for future development of the McCormick range into other important market sectors."
And recognising that it is one matter to be able to build tractors and quite another to be in a position to sell them, the Commission also stipulated certain conditions in this important department.
Case, it says, is required to allow McCormick access to all Case dealers throughout the EEA and Switzerland, plus New Holland dealers in Denmark to CX and MC tractors for as long as they wish. In Austria, Belgium, Denmark, UK, Ireland and Luxembourg dealers Case is not allowed to launch tractor models to compete with the CX and MC tractors for a period of two years.
An important detail is that CNH is to provide parts support for McCormick CX and MC tractors sold through Case dealers. "This arrangement," says Mr Edmond, "will reassure dealers and customers that they will have good back-up from the start."
Mr Edmond also sees the importance of moving quickly to acquire a McCormick dealer network if his company is not to flounder once the Case element dissipates in coming years. He reports that the UK operation is now well under way with an "enthusiastic response" coming from potential McCormick dealers. And work has already started in other important markets such as those in France, Scandinavia and Germany. *
McCormicks first CX tractor emerges from the end of Doncasters assembly line (left) and, for the memory, the first McCormick tractor ever to be produced at Doncaster (below). It is the 1949 Farmall Model M, which had a belt horsepower rated at 36.7hp. "It did the work of 12 horses," claimed the manufacturer.