Top quality guaranteed Agrikon Kam

TOP QUALITY GUARANTEED

Agrikon Kam, a well-established manufacturer of cabins, draws on a long tradition of Hungarian machine production going back to the post-war period. The company is a trusted supplier to leading European manufacturers, including CLAAS and Caterpillar, and has built its reputation on high quality and a fast response.

Located in Kiskunmajsa in south-east Hungary some 140 km from Budapest, Agrikon operates a modern manufacturing facility from which its high-quality cabins are shipped to leading agricultural and construction machine manufacturers.

Now one of the leaders in its sector, the company offers fully or partially assembled cabins for self-propelled agricultural machines, such as combine harvesters, choppers, tractors, and construction machines, as well as main subassemblies, also for self-propelled machines such as feeder houses, and various components.

The products are sold almost exclusively in export markets with a few exceptions. Agrikon’s feeder houses for combine harvesters are first delivered to Claas Hungary to then be integrated into larger assemblies that are shipped to Claas’s main factory in Harsewinkel, Germany.

Agrikon in its current form has been the sole cabin supplier for Claas SE for the last 30 years - so far the company has produced some 180,000 cabs for the famous German manufacturer.

High-quality production and a fast response time are among the factors that have helped to cement the company’s international reputation, with the support of some 200 trusted suppliers. Of those about 100 are domestic, which makes Agrikon a significant contributor to the country’s economy. Consolidated business

Agrikon KAM was founded in 1993 within the privatisation process in central and Eastern Europe, as a successor to a traditional company operating in four business lines - driver cabins, cultivation machines, grain silos and aluminium structures.

These four businesses were placed in several factories, operating under the umbrella of Agrikon Group. Some 80% of the Group’s output was exported, with the biggest volume represented by the cabins for CLAAS (which remain significant to this day) and the grain silos (the production of which has been minimised).

As a result of a thorough rationalisation and business reorganisation, Agrikon KAM has consolidated the production basis spread across various facilities. In 2008, the cultivation machines factory (Kiskőrösi Talajművelő Gépgyár) was sold, later followed by the facility specialised in metal production (Agrikon Fémipari Zrt.).

By 2009, all production had been relocated to the main factory in Kiskunmajsa, which had been expanded in previous years and had operated as the product development and manufacturing centre for driver cabins.

Today, the premises occupy an area of over 130,000 square metres, of which over 36.000 square metres are halls and buildings.

In addition to the main site, the company owns an empty industrial site of 70.000 m2, which may be used for potential development.

Values to build on

Over the last decade, Agrikon has significantly upgraded its manufacturing capability. Investments worth over €9 million have been made in modern laser machines, CNC bending machines, modern welding machines, welding robots, coating lines as well as new technology for the assembly shop, to align Agrikon’s production standards with those of advanced European manufacturers.

The company’s Managing Director Pál Velkey says: “At Agrikon we always adjust our technologies to our clients’ requirements. In our old and newer markets it is equally essential to live up to the quality expectations of the customers. We certainly feel that quality requirements are rising continuously; what is more, our market segment is taking over the stringent standards of the automotive industry. It is simply essential to have the best technology available to stay competitive.”

As a supplier to leading international harvester, construction machine and tractor manufacturers, Agrikon’s involvement starts in the very early stages of the process. Its designers and development engineers work together with the customers’ R&D departments to design products incorporating the most advanced technologies to suit individual customer requirements, to come up with a cabin that fully matches the client’s needs and expectations.

Most of Agrikon’s products are shipped to leading manufacturers in the European Union. The partnership (of Agrikon’s predecessor) with one of its key customers, Claas, started as early as in the 1970s and today the company delivers not just feeder houses for the Claas Hungarian factory but also cabins for combine harvesters, forage harvesters and welded components for Claas manufacturing facilities in Germany.

Today Claas is not Agrikon’s only premium customer. Since the financial crisis in 2009, the company has managed to establish a wide and versatile customer base that includes prestigious customers such as Liebherr, Caterpillar, Kramer, Terex, Ammann, Zetos, JLG and others. They all appreciate the high quality of products and reliability of supply, values that Agrikon will continue to build on in the future. n