- Revenue rises by 19 percent to €4.8 billion
- Double-digit growth in all world regions
- Significant improvement in pre-tax earnings
- Outlook for 2022: Moderate rise in revenue and result just below last year’s figures
“CLAAS managed to achieve growth despite the supply-side bottlenecks and the pandemic. We even registered a double-digit rise in revenue and a significant improvement in profitability across all world regions”, said Thomas Böck, Chair of the CLAAS Group Executive Board.
The drivers of last year’s growth in North America and Eastern Europe have been joined by the core markets in Western and Central Europe, including Germany and France, which are important for CLAAS. The United Kingdom also experienced major growth, despite the significant uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
Spending on research and development at a record level
Expenditure on research and development set a new record with €262 million (previous year: €237 million). Investments in innovative electronic architectures and the digitisation of agricultural processes remained important focus areas.
Investments in fixed assets totalling €138 million (previous year: €131 million) continued at a high level. In Le Mans, the Future Factory for tractors was reopened in May following an extensive conversion. There was an almost seamless transition from the official completion to the second phase of modernising the combine harvester production facilities in Harsewinkel, which has since been brought to a successful conclusion. Over 15,000 m² of production space was completely refurbished in just five months. State-of-the-art AGV transport systems are now used in the production areas of both factories, increasing both flexibility and efficiency. CLAAS has also significantly expanded its production capacities in Krasnodar, Russia, which can now manufacture four times as many combine harvesters as five years ago.