History
Deere & Company began when John Deere, born in Rutland, Vermont,
USA
on
February 7,
1804 moved to
Grand Detour, Illinois in
1836 to escape
bankruptcy in
Vermont
. Already an established
blacksmith
Deere opened a 1,378 square feet shop in Grand Detour in
1837
which allowed him to serve as a general repairman in the village, as well as a manufacturer of small tools such as pitchforks and shovels.
Even more successful than these small tools was Deere's
cast-steel plow, which was pioneered in 1837. Prior to Deere's introduction of the steel plow, most farmers used iron or wooden plows which stuck to the rich Midwestern soil and had to be cleaned very frequently. The smooth sided steel plow solved this problem, and would greatly aid migration into the American
Great Plains
in the 19th century and early 20th century. Deere's production of plows began slowly, but increased greatly when he departed from the traditional business model of making equipment as it was ordered and instead began to manufacture plows before they were ordered and then put them up for sale. This allowed customers to see what they were buying beforehand, and word of the product began to spread quickly.
In
1842,
Deere entered a business partnership with
Leonard Andrus and purchased land for the construction of a new two-story factory along the
Rock River in Illinois. This factory, named the "L. Andrus Plough Manufacturer", produced about 100 plows in
1842 and approximately 400 plows during the next year. Despite the success, Deere's partnership with Andrus ended in
1848, when Deere relocated to
Moline, Illinois in order to have access to the railroad and the
Mississippi River. In Moline, Deere formed a partnership with Robert Tate and John Gould and quickly built a new 1,440 square feet factory in
1848. Production at the plant rose quickly, and by
1849 the Deere, Tate, & Gould Company was producing over 200 plows a month, and a two story addition to the plant was built to allow for further production.
John Deere bought out Tate and Gould's interests in the company in
1853, the same year that he was joined in the business by his son
Charles Deere. The business continued to expand until
1857, when the company's production totals reached almost 1,120 implements per month. Then, in
1858 a nationwide financial recession took a toll on the company. In order to prevent bankruptcy, the company was reorganized and Deere sold his interests in the business to his son in law,
Christopher Webber, and his son, Charles Deere, who would take on most of his father's managerial roles. The company was reorganized one final time in
1868, when it was incorporated as Deere & Company. The company's original stockholders were Charles Deere,
Stephen Velie,
George Vinton, and John Deere, who would serve as president of the company until
1886. Despite this, it was Charles who effectively ran the company. In
1869, Charles began to introduce marketing centers and independent retail dealers to advance the company's sales nationwide.
John Deere died in
1886, and the presidency of Deere & Company passed to Charles Deere. By now the company was manufacturing a variety of farm equipment products in addition to plows, including wagons, corn planters, cultivators. The company even expanded into the bicycle business briefly during the
1890s, but the core focus of the company remained on agricultural implements. Increased competition during the early
1900s from the new
International Harvester Company led the company to expand its offerings in the implement business, but it was the production of gasoline tractors which would come to define Deere & Company's operations during the twentieth century.
In
1912, Deere & Company president
William Butterworth, who had replaced Charles Deere after his death in
1907, began the company's expansion into the tractor business. Deere & Company briefly experimented with its own tractor models, the most successful of which was the Dain All-Wheel-Drive, but in the end decided to continue its foray into the tractor business by purchasing the
Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company, which manufactured the popular
Waterloo Boy tractor at its facilities in
Waterloo, Iowa. Deere & Company continued to sell tractors under the Waterloo Boy name until
1923, when the
John Deere Model D was introduced. The company still manufactures most of its tractors in Waterloo, Iowa.
According to
John Ratzenberger, host of the
Travel Channel series "Made in America", Deere & Company never
repossessed any equipment from American farmers during the
Great Depression. This was revealed during the shows profile of Deere & Company.
Deere & Company Today
As of 2006, the Deere & Company employs approximately 47,000 people in 27 countries worldwide, including the
United States,
Turkey,
Canada,
United Kingdom,
China,
France,
Germany,
Spain,
Italy,
India,
Poland, and
Mexico, among many others. Inside the United States, the company's primary locations are its administrative center in
Moline, Illinois, as well as various locations in the Midwest and southeastern United States. Most manufacturing sites are in Iowa or Illinois, as well as locations in Europe. Carl Westby is known as the person that coined the phrase "Nothing runs like a Deere."
Major North American factories include:
Waterloo Works (foundry, engines, large agricultural tractors, drive trains, service parts)
Waterloo, Iowa
Harvester Works(large combine harvesters)
East Moline, IL
Cylinder Division (hydraulic cylinders)
Moline, Illinois
Seeding Group (planting equipment)
Moline, Illinois and
Valley City, North Dakota
Davenport Works (wheel loaders, motor graders, articulated dump trucks, forestry equipment)
Davenport, Iowa
Dubuque Works (backhoes, crawlers, skid-steer loaders, forestry equipment)
Dubuque, Iowa
Des Moines Works (tillage equipment, cotton harvesters, sprayers)
Ankeny, Iowa
Ottumwa Works (hay and forage equipment)
Ottumwa, Iowa
John Deere Thibodaux (cane harvesting equipment, scrapers)
Thibodaux, Louisiana
Horicon Works (lawn & garden and turf care)
Horicon, Wisconsin
Augusta Works (small commercial and agricultural tractors)
Augusta, Georgia
Welland Works (agricultural and commercial front loaders, rotary cutters, Gators)
Welland, Ontario
Other Important Factories:
John Deere Equipment Pvt Ltd (5000 Series Tractor manufacturers)
Pune, India
Werke Mannheim (6000 Series Tractors)
Mannheim, Germany
Werke Zweibrücken (Harvesting equipment)
Zweibrücken, Germany
John Deere Forestry Oy, Joensuu, Finland works: Cut-to-Length Forestry equipment
John Deere Reman - Edmonton: Remanufacturing facility for hydraulic and powertrain components for off-highway products. (C&F Division) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Operating Units
Deere & Company is currently organized into three major equipment divisions and six primary operating units:
Agricultural Equipment
Construction & Forestry Equipment
Commercial & Consumer Equipment
John Deere Power Systems
John Deere Parts
John Deere Credit
Subsidiaries & Affiliates
The John Deere Pavilion in
Moline, Illinois.
AGRIS Corporation (John Deere Agri Services)
Chamberlain Tractors (Australia)
John Deere Capital Corporation
John Deere Landscapes - a supplier of
landscaping plants, materials, and
irrigation equipment
Waratah Forestry Attachments - manufacturer of forestry harvesting heads
Agreentech
NavCom Technology, Inc. (Precision positioning systems and intelligent mobile equipment technologies)
Torrance, CA
Phoenix International Corporation (Ruggedized Off-Road Electronics)
Fargo, ND
ReGen Technologies - remanufacturing facility for engines and engine components
Ningbo Benye Tractor & Automobile Manufacture Co. Ltd.
Ningbo, China - Chinese Tractor Company
Collaborations and Partnerships
North American distributor of Hitachi-branded construction equipment.
Deere-Hitachi, located in Kernersville, NC, is jointly owned by Deere & Company and Hitachi, and manufactures hydraulic excavators for the North American market.
A partnership with Bell Equipment of South Africa provided Deere with articulated dump truck technology. In exchange, Bell manufactures Deere backhoe loaders in South Africa for distribution internationally.
John Deere is provider of backhoe loader technology to Telco Construction Equipment Company, a subsidiary of
Tata group in India.Source
Environmental record
Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute of the
University of Massachusetts Amherst placed Deere & Co. on its "Toxic 100" list of top corporate
air polluters in the US for the year 2000.
[1] Deere's "toxic score" (pounds released x toxicity x population exposure) ranked it 18th on the list. The score accounts for both fugitive (unintentional) and stack (intentional) releases. In terms of volume alone, Deere's roughly 410,000 pounds of toxic chemicals released in 2000 placed it 79th among the 99 companies listed.
[2] Over 90% of the company's score came from the release of 3055 lbs of
diisocyanates in 2002.
[3]
