Yanmar has acquired all of the shares of Claas India. The new Japanese owner says that the acquisition will significantly enhance its presence in India.
Kemal Shoshi, president of Yanmar Agribusiness Co., says that the acquisition will enable the company to offer a wider range of products. “We look forward to leveraging both companies’ strengths to deliver Yanmar products to more customers.”
The Claas story in India started with the import of Dominator combine harvesters in the 1980s. In 1989, the company signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Escorts, which led to the development of the Crop Tiger, a rice combine harvester for the Asian market. The first one was produced in Faridabad (Haryana) in 1992.
In 2002, Claas decided to go it alone and bought out the Escorts stake in the joint venture. In 2008, the Crop Tiger was produced at a new site in Morinda (Chandigarh) in northern India. Reportedly capable of making upwards of 2,000 machines a year (primarily combine harvesters), some 90% are sold in India. The rest is exported, and the company’s 70+ dealers are spread across India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Back in 2017, when Claas celebrated 25 years in India, it reckoned to be the leaders in paddy harvesting machines with a market share exceeding 55%.
With 600 staff are spread across production and sales/marketing in India, Claas India was officially bought by Yanmar parent company Yanmar Coromandel Agrisolutions. There are few details of the transaction (and nothing yet on the Claas website), but we assume that it includes the production site, sales company HQ at Faridabad and regional headquarters at Bangalore. Yanmar Holding expects the acquisition to be completed by the end of this month.
In a Yanmar press statement, Claas Group CEO Jan-Hendrik Mohr states that Claas will continue to stand behind Claas machinery and further grow its engineering and sourcing activities in India.
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