Now Kverneland shuts UKplant
Now Kverneland shuts UKplant
By Mike Williams
BRITAINS rapidly shrinking farm equipment manufacturing industry has suffered another blow with the news that the Kverneland Group is to close its machinery factory at Devizes, Wilts. The factory built feeder wagons and bale choppers sold under the Taarup brand name, with most of the production going for export.
The Devizes factory was previously owned by Kidd Farm Machinery, one of Britains leading farm machinery manufacturers in the 1960s and 1970s, building manure spreaders and a wide range of grass machinery including rollers, pasture toppers and forage harvesters. The factory was bought in the late 1980s by the Danish based Taarup company, now part of the Kverneland Group.
Machinery production will be transferred to the Taarup factory in Denmark, and employees at Devizes face redundancy. The closure is blamed on the high value of the £, which creates an additional barrier for exporters of British made products. *