Despite the 3.0% global drop in grassland equipment unit numbers, Krone reckons to have achieved above-average growth in all product groups and expanded its market share during the last financial year.
The company’s farm machinery sales increased by nearly 5.0% to €732.9m (previous year €697.7m) during the year, which ran from August 1, 2019, to July 31, 2020.
The German market accounted for a quarter of the total (previous year 28.0%), while west European markets increased slightly from 35.6% to 36.2%. Eastern Europe (8.4%) and North America (15.2%) remain stable, and sales in the rest of the world were up from 11.7% to 15.1%.
Despite good performance from the company’s farm machinery division, the negative effects of Covid, Brexit and various protectionist import tariff measures, affected the company’s commercial vehicles division, and overall Krone Group turnover fell to €1.9b during the 2019/2020 financial year (previous year around €2.2b).
“The pandemic has shone a light on the economy sectors that are really important,” said Bernard Krone, chairman of the Krone Holding supervisory board. “Agriculture and transportation are clearly amongst them. This is reflected by yet another sales increase to €732 million in the agricultural machinery market.”
The Krone Group employed a workforce of 5,375 in more than 15 countries in the last financial year (previous year 5,292).
