THIS IS HOW JOHN DEERE BECAME A LEADER IN THE HEAVY MACHINERY INDUSTRY
John Deere was a blacksmith who accidentally learned about farmers’ complaints about their ineffective plows and developed one made from polished steel in 1837 – he used a broken sawblade to make it. The following year he became a manufacturer due to rising demand – he built ten of his plows that year, but in 1842 he made a hundred of them. In 1848 he became a partner and a new factory was set up on the Mississippi River, taking advantage of the transportation options provided by the river and the power supply it could be used as. The plant doubled its production the following year. In 1852 the partnership ended and Deere bought the share held by his now former partner. Deere insisted on the high quality of their products and his partner disagreed.
During the financial crisis in 1858 Deere had to make some changes in order to avoid bankruptcy, including the appointment of his son Charles as the new general manager. He stayed in that position for the following 49 years.
THE INNOVATIONS
A major innovation was introduced in 1863 – the Hawkeye Riding Cultivator was shown, featuring a wooden system protecting the shovels from hard objects. A year later Deere was happy to hold in his hands the first of many patents he would later own. He got it for the molds he used for plow casting, and many other patents followed.
Deere & Company was established in 1868 with four shareholders participating initially with John and Charles Deere who were in charge of the company with 65% of the shares. A year later Charles Deere, alongside Alvah Mansur, opened the first branch office in Kansas City and another 4 branches were created in the following two decades.
Soon after John Deere became the mayor of Moline, Illinois, he patented the leaping deer – the signature company trademark, which is the oldest American trademark used since its creation among all Fortune 500 companies to date.
The Deere & Mansur Company was established in 1877 and it immediately began making corn planters. It became part of Deere & Company in 1910 and it still produces planters to this day.
After the Gilpin Sulky plow defeated the competition and won the Sevres vase (the biggest prize there was which can be seen at the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Illinois) at the Universal Exposition held in Paris in 1878, the sales skyrocketed to 7,824 in 1883. Around that time the first electric plant was opened in Rock Island County. The number of walking plows sold reached the staggering 224,062 units between 1879 and 1883. John Deere, the founder of the company, passed away in 1886, aged 82.
THE NEW HORIZONS
After Charles Deere’s passing in 1907, his son-in-law named William Butterworth took over the control for the next 21 years. He was able to turn Deere into the leading tractor and harvesting business. A year later the John Deere Export Department was established in New York and its manager began travelling the world in search of expanding the business. In 1912 Deere & Company’s production line included counts planters, buggies, wagons, harvesting and grain drills. The company also acquired Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company exactly when the All-Wheel Drive Tractor was unveiled.
The company presented its first production-ready combine in 1927. Four years later The Great Depression resulted in the company taking $12 million in farmer notes. This is how the company kept its loyal clients. Despite the crisis, new tractor models are launched on the market. The company helped the government during World War II by producing aircraft parts and military tractors.
During the mid-50s a new tractor model is upgraded into a crawler that could be used as a bulldozer when a blade is attached to it. Around the same time the company launched the first of its kind two-row self-propelled cotton picker. By 1956 the company operated in 35 countries. A year later they revolutionized haying by making it a one-man operation. The Industrial Equipment division was introduced the following year, offering all-yellow construction machinery. The all-new tractor product line equipped with four and six-cylinder engines were introduced in the beginning of the 60s.
The second half of the 60s leads to innovations like the Skidder canopy, the rollover protective system for tractors and the articulated frame construction. The industry’s first four-row cotton picker was introduced in 1979.
THE WORLD EXPANSION
In 1988, a year after the company’s 150th anniversary, a joint venture with Hitachi was established. The 90s were marked by the launch of a utility vehicle line and a new generation of state-of-the-art tractors. The joint venture between Deere and Hitachi expanded to Canada and Brazil. After acquiring a couple of companies in the dawn of the 21st century, the company set foot in China in 2006 by opening a plant in Tianjin. John Deere’s all new endeavor named the Intelligent Solutions Group was established just five years ago to increase productivity by introducing technology and embedding it in all the equipment. The company also bought Wirtgen Group a couple of years ago. Wirtgen Group is the biggest road construction equipment producer on the planet.
A great variety of machines wear the John Deere logo and colors today. The company offers engines, transmissions and utility vehicles, as well as a wide range of tractors, loaders, cutters, shredders and harvesters. The portfolio also includes dozers, excavators, crawlers, dump trucks, graders, landscaping machinery and many, many more.
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