This Is How a Simple Straw Knotter Paved the Road to Success for Claas

Great stories often start off with a simple step. The development of CLAAS makes no exception. August Claas and his three brothers - Franz, Theo and Bernhard, laid the foundation of the CLAAS brand in 1913 by producing straw binding machines which proved to be productive and reliable. They eventually received a couple of patents for the knotter they began manufacturing.

After the WWI ended, the brothers were able to source the tools and machines needed for their work process, but finding materials for the straw binders’ production proved to be almost impossible so they reconditioned second hand machinery at first. Due to trouble with the twine used in later production, August Claas developed and patented the knotter machine. Soon the German Agricultural Society recognized the device as the best there is. The combination of the straw binder and the knotter proved to be a massive success and by 1930 more than 10,000 Claas straw binders were sold and the company expanded to other European countries’ markets as well.

The Most Important Step

The head of the Agricultural Technology Institute at the University of Bonn-Poppelsdorf - professor Karl Vormfelde – was the one who suggested harvesters should be widely introduced to Europe after seeing how they improved the agricultural sectors in the U.S., Canada and Australia. Soon, Claas introduced a combine harvester designed to fit the needs of the typical European farmer. The machine was revolutionary and it propelled Claas ahead of the competition. A hundred units of the machine were made between 1936 and 1939. The government slowly suppressed the combine harvester production in the next couple of years before putting a ban on it completely. Claas turned to armaments manufacturing in order to stay afloat but they had already sold 1,400 combine harvesters, so they simply started working on the next one.

Dominating The Harvesting Machines Industry

England became a huge market in the late 40s and became the reason for Claas’ production restart and further development. The company supplied the new market with the all-new SUPER combine harvester. An increase in the facility and power of the production plant was the logical next step.

In the early 50s, Claas had no real competition on the combine harvester market in Europe but this changed by the end of the decade. In order to remain the leader among the rising competition, Claas decided to bet it all on the combine harvester and most of the funds were poured into the machines’ increased production volumes. The company also set up a network of importers for different countries and studied different new overseas markets. The number of employees grew from 127 people in 1945 to the whopping 5,300 people in 1968. The units of combine harvesters went up with an average of 80% year after year, and more than 200,000 machines left the factory by the end of the 60s, meaning that Claas had already become a world leader. However, the market pace slowed down and the demand for agricultural machines came to a halt in the early 70s. The company had to restructure the business in order to continue thriving. After the Claas management decided to buy a few smaller companies and to create new production facilities, the first forage harvester machine with self-propulsion was introduced: the CLAAS JAGUAR machine turned out to be very important for the company’s growth. A later CLAAS JAGUAR model became the world leader in its segment. The CLAAS DOMINATOR harvester was introduced in the 70s and quickly became a market success as well. The Claas Dominator 80 model became the most successful harvester ever sold in Europe and the bigger Claas Lexion model introduced later was equally successful.

The computer-based agriculture data system called Agrocom was launched as a service in 1988. Of course, a tractor had to be added to the product portfolio. The engineers had been working on such a machine machine since the end of the 60s.

The Expansion

Claas machines were sold many different countries’ markets in the 70s, including Soviet ones. Meanwhile, the Claas Xerion model range was introduced in the end of the 90s and remained one of the most important models for the company’s growth alongside the Axion which was introduced in the following decade (1997). The company expanded all over the world in the following decades and even bought all the shares of Renault Agriculture between 2003 and 2008. Soon the all-new tractor model range joined the company’s product portfolio and cemented its presence as an agricultural market leader. Currently the company’s subsidiaries Claas Iberica and Claas Italia have their own distribution networks.

Claas offers an extremely large variety of tractors, forage harvesters and combines, as well as balers, telehandlers and wheel loaders.

You can discover more at https://www.claas-group.com