A new hall, an even bigger Fendt stand, hundreds of thousands of visitors and a shower of medals – a trade fair, where everything was just right. Visitors and juries honoured Fendt’s excellent presentation and performance with awards ranging from the DLG Gold Medal to the “Machine of the Year People’s Choice Award”.
Agritechnica 2015: A shower of medals and crowds of visitors at Fendt
A new hall, an even bigger Fendt stand, hundreds of thousands of visitors and a shower of medals – a trade fair, where everything was just right. Visitors and juries honoured Fendt’s excellent presentation and performance with awards ranging from the DLG Gold Medal to the “Machine of the Year People’s Choice Award”.
Peter-Josef Paffen (Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board)
“The Agritechnica 2015 was an outstanding trade fair for us,” says Peter-Josef Paffen, Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board. “We received many awards this year, especially for the new Fendt 1000 Vario. Visitors were also extremely interested in this machine. Sometimes people had to wait over 30 minutes to get a chance to climb up into the cab.”
5 medals – 1 Gold and 4 Silver
Fendt experienced an excellent start to the Agritechnica. Already at the very beginning, the German Agricultural Society (DLG) recognised new developments from Fendt with five medals. The four Silver Medals were already awarded by the management on Sunday, November 8th, and the Gold Medal for the new tyre pressure regulation system Fendt VarioGrip Pro at an awards ceremony, which was part of the Max Eyth Evening on the 9th of November. Fendt received the Silver medals for the new Fendt VarioDrive drive train on the Fendt 1000 Vario, the new Fendt GripAssistant, the 360° camera system for combines and the electric hay rake Fendt Former 12555 X.
Machine of the Year People’s Choice
“I’m as happy as can be,” sums up Rob Smith, AGCO Senior Vice President and General Manager EAME, after the Fendt 1000 Vario received the “Machine of the Year People’s Choice”. The awards ceremony on the 10th of November at the dlv-Verlag publishers felt at bit like the Oscar awards ceremony – especially because the Management of AGCO/Fendt was overwhelmed with joy.
The new high-horsepower tractor received the people’s choice award as the best new product of the year. Over the course of seven weeks, users could vote for their personal favourite amongst the agricultural machines – the Fendt 1050 Vario received the most votes. For Fendt, this award is something special, as Peter-Josef Paffen, Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board expresses: “How a jury decides is one thing. How the entire public decides is a totally different thing.”
Winner in the category Tractor XXL and special award
The Fendt 1000 Vario lives up to its name “German Meisterwerk”: in addition to the People’s Choice award, it also won in the category Tractor XXL. On the evening of the 10th of November, the agricultural engineering journalists from the dlv-Verlag publishers also announced the winners for high-horsepower tractors. In particular Dr Heribert Reiter, Managing Director Research and Development AGCO/Fendt, was proud of this award. “I am extremely pleased and it makes me very proud to have had the chance to work on such a vehicle. But when you realise that the experts and public alike also recognise this, that makes it even greater, that is motivation!” With four models, a 12.4-litre displacement, 2,400 Nm of torque and its many innovations, from the drive train up to the hydraulics, the Fendt 1000 Vario deserves this award. Fendt received the special award together with the tyre manufacturer Mitas for the VarioGrip Pro tyre-in-tyre system.
The new Fendt 1000 Vario is not only a highlight of the exhibition, but also the hit of the year. The trade press confirmed this with the “Tractor of the Year 2016” award. To become the tractor of the year, a tractor has to be at the forefront for a number of criteria, for example, for its engine, transmission, electronics, hydraulics, cab comfort, innovations, design, price-performance ratio and much more. The Fendt 1050 convinced the jury in all points.
Martin Richenhagen (President, CEO and Chairman AGCO Corporation)
As Martin Richenhagen, President, CEO and Chairman AGCO explained, this award is so important, because it is “awarded by international trade journalists – and they are very critical.” Martin Richenhagen sees the award as “motivation to continue to be creative in the future, in order to maintain the lead.”
The “Tractor of the Year” is awarded by journalists from 23 independent agricultural machinery trade magazines from all over Europe. It was first awarded in 1998 – and, no surprise here, it went to a Fendt. At that time it was the first Fendt Vario with the new stepless Vario transmission that convinced the jury of journalists. A Fendt also managed to take first place in the years 1999, 2004 and 2011.
Current leader in the survey for the best exhibition stand
Despite the large number of people, who made their way through the exhibition halls, everyone had the opportunity to take a close look at the Fendt tractors, forage harvesters, combines and forage harvesting equipment. More than 130 Fendt employees were there to provide visitors with information or consultation or simply to lend an ear. That appears to have gone over well: the “AGRI-EXPERTS” carried out an independent survey amongst visitors to the exhibition for agraraheute.com and the current intermediate result shows that Fendt leads the ranking for the “Best Stand” at the Agritechnica (Source: www.agrarheute.com). According to agrarheute.com, in addition to the attractive gifts and the nicest hostesses, this is a result of the competent consultation provided by the stand staff. It all depends on the overall presentation, and the most critical and honest verdict comes from the visitors themselves.
Fendt boss, Peter-Josef Paffen, is also especially pleased with this result: “We just learned today that our stand with our personnel, our employees and our small giveaways has received an excellent rating.”
The Agritechnica 2015 was once again an exhibition of superlatives. Some 450,000 visitors came to the world’s leading exhibition for agricultural machinery in Hanover. According to information provided by the organiser (German Agricultural Society, DLG), more than 200,000 farmers already visited the first two exclusive preview days and the first two big public days. Every fourth visitor came from outside of Germany. There was no passing by the new Hall 20 with the Fendt stand.
