Equipment made by the Wirtgen Group (Kleemann step 2, Wirtgen steps 3, 11, Benninghoven step 4, Hamm steps 8, 10, VÖGELE step 9) complete the end-to-end road construction process, along with John Deere's equipment shown at steps 1, 5, 6 and 7.
Deere & Company is betting big on infrastructure construction by bolstering their construction equipment portfolio with an acquisition of the privately-held Wirtgen Group EUR 4.6 billion (USD 5.2 billion), including debt. Pending all regulatory approvals, the companies said they expect to close on the transaction in the first quarter of Deere's 2018 fiscal year.
The Wirtgen Group, headquartered in Germany, is a global manufacturer of road construction equipment and includes product brands such as Wirtgen, VÖGELE, Hamm, Kleemann, Benninghoven, and Ciber. Coupled together, these five brands have a product line spanning the entire road construction sector including milling, processing, mixing, paving, compaction and rehabilitation. The addition of these product portfolios to Deere's existing construction equipment offering will strengthen Deere as an industry leader in global road construction.
The Wirtgen Group has a global footprint with approximately 8,000 employees and sells products in more than 100 countries through a large network of company-owned and independent dealers. Some of the Wirtgen Group's offerings include mobile machine solutions for road construction and road rehabilitation and plants for mining and processing minerals or recycling material and for the production of asphalt. Construction machinery built by the five brands includes pavers, screeds, feeders, road milling machines, cold recyclers, soil stabilizers, slipform pavers, surface miners, vibratory compactors, tandem rollers, rubber-wheeled rollers, crushers and screens, and asphalt mixing plants.
Deere plans to maintain the Wirtgen Group's existing brands, management, manufacturing footprint, employees, and distribution network and aims to benefit from sharing best practices in distribution, customer support, manufacturing, and technology as well as in scale and efficiency of operations.
"This transaction enhances our global distribution options in construction equipment and enhances our capabilities in emerging markets. Spending on road construction and transportation projects has grown at a faster rate than the overall construction industry and tends to be less cyclical. There is recognition globally that infrastructure improvements must be a priority and roads and highways are among the most critical in need of repair and replacement."
- Max Guinn, President of Deere's Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division
To learn more about the synergy between these two companies, Equipment World has
a great write-up.