AGCO, a global manufacturer and distributor of agricultural machinery and solutions, has confirmed further expansion of its Beauvais site. This announcement has been made public by Martin Richenhagen, chairman, president and chief executive officer of AGCO at the Choose France summit, led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“With this new acquisition, we are now looking at investing an additional €40 million ($44.4 million) as we develop an industry 4.0 site. 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.” said Richenhagen.

The acquisition includes the 15.7 hectares ex-Froneri site, which includes 4.5 hectares of buildings.

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

  • A tractor customization workshop.
     
  • An additive manufacturing facility, which will start in February 2020 for plastic parts and, for metal parts, during 2021.
     
  • The in-house production of hydraulics pipes, which are currently outsourced from suppliers in Europe and Asia. Production will start in April 2020.
     
  • Gearbox remanufacturing.

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

“After refurbishment, the newly created and unified Massey Ferguson Center 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,” said Richenhagen.

The unified Beauvais campus will encompass the full design, building, testing and manufacturing of new models. AGCO intends to ramp up the site’s production volumes to 18,000 tractors per year to meet market demand.

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