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John Deere Limited in the UK & Ireland
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The John Deere Importer Timeline 1915-2001
Since 1966, and from very small beginnings, John Deere Limited has grown to be one of the biggest suppliers of tractors and agricultural machinery to British and Irish farmers, with a reputation for product quality and performance.
Regular staff and dealer training courses, and continuing investment in new products and manufacturing systems, ensure that John Deere is able to provide the most advanced and reliable products, backed by efficient and knowledgeable service and customer support.
The Early Days
John Deere’s oldest tractor, the 25hp Waterloo Boy from 1917, was sold in the UK under the Overtime name; it was given credit for helping win World War I by putting in many hours of overtime producing food for the war zone and the home front.
Later in the 20th century, John Deere three wheel, high clearance tractors came into East Anglia from America at the end of the Second World War under the lend lease deal.
After plans to set up a manufacturing site near Glasgow in the 1950s were frustrated, the American parent company Deere & Company purchased the Heinrich Lanz factory in Mannheim, West Germany, which is still the main European manufacturing base today.
Established 1966
As the marketing company for the UK and Ireland, John Deere Limited commenced trading from its present day headquarters at Langar, near Nottingham, in January 1966.
The product line at this time consisted of the 710, 4020, 5010 and 5020 tractors, ploughs, cultivators, disc harrows and the 530 and 630 combines.
Of the original dealers who, for a short time, sold large tractors imported from the USA through a franchise operation in the early 1960s, and who continued with the new company, two are still John Deere dealers today, and owned by the same families. They are Ben Burgess in Norwich, Norfolk, and P.Tuckwell at Worlingworth in Suffolk.
Market Leadership
Over the last three and a half decades, while the home tractor market has more than halved and many well known names have disappeared, John Deere’s market share has risen from almost nothing to a position of market leadership. The company’s share of the combine market has also risen. Annual sales have increased over 100 fold, from under £1.5 million to more than £150 million, during this time. According to the American Journal Busienss Week, John Deere spends more on Research and Development, than any other farm machinery company.
In 1986, John Deere UK initiated the sales of John Deere groundscare equipment in the UK and Ireland.
In 2000, the John Deere front axle suspension system for four wheel drive tractors won the Gold Medal in the RASE machinery awards (the first time that John Deere Ltd has received a Gold Medal in this scheme).
Royal Warrant
In 1972, John Deere Limited was awarded the Royal Warrant as suppliers of agricultural equipment to Her Majesty The Queen. The company’s original training centre at Bingham was established in 1981, and in 1986 the company moved into the groundscare business in the UK and Ireland. John Deere now offers Europe’s broadest range of commercial and consumer equipment for lawns, gardens, parks, playing fields, golf courses, sports grounds and other amenity turf maintenance.
National Training Award
John Deere Limited received a prestigious National Training Award in 1997 for the Ag Tech program. This is a unique agricultural engineering apprentice training partnership between John Deere and Brooksby College, near Melton Mowbray, with support from the Leicestershire Training & Enterprise Council (TEC).
Medal of Excellence
In 2006 10th City & Guilds national medal of Excellence awarded to an Ag Tech apprentice. This medal was first awarded in 1996, and no other competitive manufacturer's apprentice has ever won.
John Deere Ltd Today
John Deere’s new two storey office premises (above) and training centre were officially opened in May 1998 by HRH The Princess Royal. They cover a total of 42,000ft2, and comprise state of the art training and workshop facilities plus modern, air conditioned offices and a stylish staff restaurant for the company’s 105 employees.
Full training on all aspects of management, sales, parts and service support is available to John Deere staff, dealers and some customers at the new training centre. Each year the company delivers well over 5000 training days covering 40 different courses.
The training centre replaces the company’s previous facilities at Bingham. Together with the existing premises, the new building allows John Deere Limited to have all its office, training, workshop and parts storage facilities on one site, for the first time since the company was established at Langar. The UK headquarters have achieved certification to ISO 9002, the most comprehensive quality standards attainable by any business.
All John Deere’s dealers are connected by computer to the company's worldwide parts network, by the Distribution Network System (DNS). This provides instant information on parts availability, day or night, with orders shipped from anywhere in the world within 24 hours, and overnight or even same day delivery on the UK mainland.
John Deere Philosophy
The basis of the John Deere philosophy goes back to John Deere himself - the blacksmith who founded the company in America in 1837, and whose revolutionary self scouring steel plough played a major role in opening up the American prairies.
He said: "I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me." The brand name means quality to the customer, and the consistent investment in research and development, manufacturing and spare parts is aimed at providing customers with genuine value across the product range.
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