BEAUVAIS, FRANCE — AGCO plans to expand its location in Beauvais, France, following acquisition of a 15.7-hectare adjacent site.

“With this new acquisition, we are now looking at investing an additional €40 million as we develop a cutting-edge industry 4.0 site,” said Martin Richenhagen, chairman, president and chief executive officer of AGCO. “This will add 200 new sustainable jobs to the already 100-plus jobs created with Beauvais 3, back in September 2018. At the end of this new investment program, AGCO will have created 300 new jobs for its local Beauvais community as we intend Beauvais to become the global home of the Massey Ferguson Brand.”

The acquisition, which includes 4.5 hectares of buildings, signals AGCO’s strong appetite for continued investment, which will enable Massey Ferguson to meet growing demand for its straightforward and dependable equipment, the company said.

The expansion will support the integration of new activities through vertical integration, including:

• Tractor customization workshop to offer a wider choice to customers, fitting specific, customized equipment and accessories off the production line to meet any single customer’s needs.
• Additive manufacturing facility, benefiting from acquired expertise on prototype parts 3D printing for manufacturing for small series, complex and customized parts production to support the tractor customization workshop. This activity will start in February 2020 for plastic parts and, for metal parts, during 2021.
•  In-house production of hydraulics pipes, which are currently outsourced from suppliers in Europe and Asia. The objective is to produce these hoses in Beauvais, integrating advanced technologies for production, quality control and storage — this activity will start in April 2020.
• Gearbox remanufacturing, offering customers a cost-effective alternative to a brand-new replacement.

This extra space also will allow AGCO to roll out a range of new agricultural machinery, which is a key part of the company’s growth plans for Massey Ferguson.

“After refurbishment, the newly created and unified Massey Ferguson Centre of Excellence for Engineering and Manufacturing will cover a total area of 54 hectares and employ up to 2,500 people, including in its GIMA and AGCO Finance joint ventures,” Richenhagen said. “This project will create the conditions for the revitalization of the area’s economic activity by creating new jobs. More than €250 million has been invested in Beauvais in the past eight years. Our growth strategy is gaining momentum, and the proximity and availability of a skilled workforce makes this new investment program even more compelling.”

The single, unified Beauvais campus will encompass the full design, build, testing and manufacture of new models, and it is the company’s intention to ramp up the site’s production volumes to 18,000 tractors/year to meet market demand.