Lemken sales increased by more than a fifth last year to a record €446, the first time it has exceeded €400m. The German market remained at a high level where strong seed drill sales compensated for the discontinued field sprayers.
The export share increased to 81%. Almost all international markets developed well and the company was pleased with growth in Canada, Oceania, South Africa and the US, where it set up a sales and service base near Des Moines last year.
Lemken is concerned by the situation in Ukraine, but expects a consistently high level of sales this year, due mainly to the sound volume of existing orders across all other markets with most farmers and contractors benefitting from high producer prices.
It is full steam ahead, and the assembly site in Haren, which was re-organised last year to make seed drills, will be further expanded to meet the high demand. It will also be capable of building a range of new models in development.
New Lemken implements to be launched this year include the Heliodor compact disc harrow with slurry distributor, the Karat 10 cultivator as a tined implement with leading discs and the Solitair DT will soon be available as a revised trailed drill combination.
News from Lemken subsidiary Steketee includes a new Dutch factory. This is scheduled to open autumn 2023. On the product front, the IC-Weeder automatic intra-row hoeing machine is coming as an AI-enhanced version and a new feature is the combination of band spraying and hoeing.
