Combining old and new Agrikon Kam

COMBINING OLD AND NEW

Located in Kiskunmajsa, south of Hungary, driver’s cab manufacturing firm Agrikon Kam Ltd has experienced dynamic growth in recent years owing to its strategy of diversifying its product range and exploring new markets. To face this new challenge the company has made large investments to develop its facilities whilst still managing to maintain its financial stability. Edina Beale reports.

Since 1976, Agrikon Kam Ltd has been the exclusive supplier of drivers’ cabs to the leading international combine harvester manufacturer, Claas. It has also been producing welded components mainly for agricultural machines. In recent years, however, the company has developed a strategy to target customers in the construction industry. Today it designs, develops and produces drivers’ cabs for harvesters, tractors, forage harvesters, road rollers, excavators, telescopic loaders, loading vehicles on wheels and also welded components for road sweepers and lorries.

Increased customer base

The Claas group is still the company’s largest partner. Agrikon Kam delivers products to its German, Hungarian and French manufacturing plants. Recently a new agreement was made to extend the product line with Claas: in addition to delivering drivers’ cabs for harvesting machines, Agrikon now manufactures cabs for Claas tractors too. Besides successfully maintaining long-term partnerships, Agrikon has acquired many new partners in this segment and found opportunities in new markets. The company supplies drivers’ cabs for WackerNeuson, for whom a second type of cab is already being developed. The factory has been regularly manufacturing Kramer, Hako and Terex drivers’ cabs as well as receiving orders from the American Belgian JLG. After exporting welded components to Liebherr for many years, Agrikon had been recently selected to manufacture drivers’ cabs for them.

The company has had some success in the Czech market. Since January 2014 it has been manufacturing drivers’ cab frames for the Zetor tractor producer in Brno – a regular order of 3000 pieces every year. In addition to this, Agrikon now manufactures two types of drivers’ cabs for Ammann, a Czech road roller producer.

The company is able to meet all customer requirements from painted and glass frames to complete finishes. “The latest trend of recent times is that our customers want to install equipment options by themselves, so they only require the product to be completed to half finish,” says chief executive Mr Pál Velkey. “Besides our most significant German market, the demand from Belgium, France and Austria has increased lately, and the Czech market has become important too. Despite the current political instability in Russia, their demand for our products has remained the same.”

Setting up for growth

At present Agrikon Kam employs 380 people and will generate a turnover of €24 million this year. This turnover is the result of an annual production output of 24,000 products. According to the managing director, Agrikon is currently experienc-

ing dynamic growth and is expected to produce 28,000 units in 2015 and 33,000 units in 2016.

As the company currently operates in a 65,000m2 production plant, of which only 36,000m2 is built up, Agrikon is not in need of more production space. However, it has had to make significant investments into new assets for its latest projects.

To this end, Agrikon has modernised its laser cutting technology and purchased fibre laser and 3D laser machines. “Now we have a state-of-the-art machine to bend and roll special profiles in-house and this investment has enabled us to improve our edge and tube bending technologies too,” confirms Mr Velkey. The company’s manual welding machines are regularly replaced with modern versions whilst the automated welding processing line, which was installed over 10 years ago, has recently been extended and increased from 4 to 14 machines.

The company’s e-coating lines have also been completely refurbished and the latest technology has been installed to provide a variety of coating, including powder coating, so Agrikon can meet specific customer requirements.

Furthermore, Agrikon has extended and modernised its measuring technologies. It currently operates four 3D measuring machines, a measuring arm and measuring machines with cameras.

Good prospects

Agrikon Kam is now close to being one of the top three European producers of drivers’ cabs. Mr Velkey continues: “In order to become one of these top three producers we have to improve our competitiveness continuously, which means we have to focus on efficiency, quality, reliability and speed. Our stable financial position, however, is already a great advantage in our sector in the European market when recovering from the recent recession. We are able to carry out our investments without taking any bank loan, by using only our own resources.”

He concludes: “Our company currently stands on three legs: agricultural machines, construction machines and welded components. This chair is not wobbling at the moment, but a fourth leg could improve its stability. One possible option could be manufacturing drivers’ cabs for lorries. Our aim is to utilise most of our capacities before 2018 and that would mean manufacturing 40–45,000 products per year. At the same time we will focus on providing training opportunities for our workforce.” n