Great Plains Owner Talks About British Acquisition
The purchase of Simba gives GP added sales opportunity, and engineering.
Dan Crummett
Published: Jul 16, 2010
About 700 Great Plains Mfg. dealers tripped to Kansas City this past week to see the company's new models for the coming year, and to hear from owner Roy Applequist more about GP's recent purchase of Simba, a United Kingdom-based equipment company.
Great Plains, currently doing business in about 30 foreign countries, is no newcomer to international trade, and that business keeps Dan Rauchholz, president of Great Plains International hopping, looking for ways to make the Kansas-based manufacturer's products more attractive to overseas producers -- and to bring overseas innovations back to the United States for American farmers.
The purchase of Simba, a tillage-tool firm with very similar philosophies to those of Great Plains, and a strong presence in Western Europe was a good fit, says Applequist. Both companies build equipment based on similar agronomic philosophies--aimed at providing an unimpeded growing zone for plant roots with as few field trips as possible.
Roy Applequist, owner of Great Plains, Mfg., poses with a Simba Xpress field preparation tool that will soon be available to U.S. growers. He says engineering from the Xpress has potential for other Great Plains products in the future. "We have had a strong presence in Eastern Europe and parts of the Former Soviet Union and our equipment is well suited to the agronomic needs in those areas," he explained. "We haven't been as strong in Western Europe and the wetter regions of the Continent, and Simba's background is rooted there," he added.
Simba and Great Plains have strangely similar backgrounds -- both were formed in 1976 -- and both firms will benefit from an integrated dealer network, Applequist predicted.
Great Plains International president Dan Rauchholz demonstrates the attachment of a seed bag on a hand-crank calibration system on one of GP's new Narrow Transport Air Drills. "They were strong in tillage equipment that could run ahead of our planters in Europe, and we can benefit from some of that engineering here in the U.S.," notes Rauchholz.
In fact, the Simba acquisition will only speed technology transfer that is already taking place in the design rooms of Great Plains, he says.
Currently, Great Plains has been introducing a number of planters and cultivation tools that will fold to a 10-foot transport width (matching the 3-meter transport width mandated in certain European countries). The move not only makes GP equipment acceptable across the Atlantic, but it's proving to be very handy to American farmers, particularly in the densely populated areas of the U.S. where equipment has to be moved from field to field.
Parallel linkage adjustments for disc gangs on Simba's Xpress shows promise for innovation on Great Plains tools in the future, says GP owner Roy Applequist. Likewise, European touches like a hand-crank mode for planter calibration are showing up on GP equipment based on Continental demands for a quick and seed-conserving method of setting field calibrations. GP's new narrow transport air drills sport the hand crank, and a bag attachment for just such calibrations, Rauchholz explains.
For 10 years Simba has produced a series of field preparation tools under the Xpress name for use in Great Britain and Western Europe. That tool family has evolved through various iterations, and now basically is a central-spine, disc, ripper, disc with a set of trailing "consolidating rings" (a patented "press wheel" arrangement designed to firm the surface seedbed and provide a uniform soil density from surface to root zone.).
"One of the innovations we see in the Xpress models is the parallel adjustment features for the disc gangs," says Applequist, with a hint of "you'll probably see some of this technology on GP models in the future."
"We're a global company operating in a global economy," Rauchholz adds. "And, to compete throughout Europe, our relationship with Simba just makes good sense."
In addition to the technology transfer of British and American engineering, the acquisition will allow Simba (managed independently from offices in England) to offer European growers Great Plains equipment along side the gold-colored Simba line, and Great Plains dealers to offer Simba equipment throughout the U.S.
"It offers our customers more choices for whatever field management schemes they are following," Rauchholz explained.
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Tagged: tillage, planter
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