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MT-ND | You mentioned in one of your posts that Agco tried expanding the Cat/Challenger crawler line world wide and it didn't work.
Why?
Not why didn't it work, why did agco take what's basically a regional brand and go world wide with it?
Did they think Caterpillar was stupid or something on why it wasn't world wide? I mean crawlers aren't exactly a universal machine like a wheel tractor, they went through a fad here and then disappeared then when the Versatile made rubber tracks came out they went through a fad and disappeared again, yet from what I understand, in the hills and further west, they were extremely popular. Caterpillar around the world means construction not agriculture, its just pockets here and there that it means agriculture.
Did agco try this with every brand it bought? Farmhand? Spra-Coupe? Hesston?
Farmhand was a regional brand that everyone here had something made by them, a loader, tub grinder, something, then nothing really happened with them aside from Agco basically making the same model Farmhand had made for 10 years before. A regional brand is what they were.
Spra-Coupe sounds somewhat like Cat's story, where I've found articles saying sales were flat and not increasing, so agco ended it and also kicked out a pile of dealers in the process. Again I'm not sure what Agco was expecting with a regional brand. Spra-Coupes were extremely common here in its homeland, and in other pockets, but that was its purpose. It wasn't a universal machine, it was a machine made here for here.
Hesston had a full line at the time of the buyout then agco was somewhat progressive with it then rebranded it here, which chased people away, as Massey swathers had a terrible reputation and when Massey is prominently displayed with a little Hesston sticker underneath, it does give the impression that it is a rebranded Massey. Again Hesston was a regional brand, did they try to take a regional central US brand world wide then be disgusted when it didn't take off because no one had ever heard of Hesston outside of its area?
Is this the story with everything Agco bought? They buy a regional brand, try to take it global, then get disappointed and discontinue it?
Are we watching it happen again with Fendt? I mean their combine isn't exactly a hit like what it appears they were expecting with big operations going back to other brands after a few years. Their wheel tractors, yeah there's a few, but again it's not exactly a smash hit. Then again I'm in articulated 4x4 country, the "big western farms" area as it used to be called.
I mean aside from Massey, basically everything else they bought is a regional brand. | |
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Question for Chris
