Despite difficult market conditions, Krone’s agricultural machinery division was able to generate slightly higher sales of €554.5 million during the 2014/2015 financial year. The Krone Group as a whole (includes commercial trailer business) generated slightly higher sales of around €1.6 billion. Domestic sales for the Krone Group rose 5.2% to €482.5 million, of which agricultural machinery accounted for 32%, while export sales declined by 1% to €1.15 billion (34.6% agricultural machinery division). While satisfied with performance, managing director Bernard Krone says the end of EU milk production quotas and the consequences of the Russian Ukrainian crisis continue to impact negatively on the business. “We are currently experiencing fierce competition in both agricultural machinery and commercial trailer markets,” he says. The Group’s projections for the current fiscal year are moderate and anticipate a decrease in sales by a single-digit percentage.