Graemetic Ltd - Abrey Agricultural

Leading French brands
are on their way to the UK

A new name in agricultural machinery was launched at this year's Sima Show, where three respected French brands were united under the Eurotechnics Agri banner for the first time.

The show, which took place in Paris at the beginning of March, saw Suire, Jean de Bru and Goizin exhibit machinery from their diverse ranges on the same stand - and in the same colours.

Eurotechnics was created in 2000 as a high-tech engineering company building components for the automotive and aircraft industries, but it soon diversified into agriculture, buying the French cultivation equipment manufacturer Jean de Bru in 2001.

Suire, another French firm specialising in grassland and general farm machinery, was added to the group in 2003, while the opportunity to buy the plough builder Goizin came along in 2005.

According to Eurotechnics Agri Director Antoine Lemaire, who also heads up Suire, the latest initiative to bring all three companies under one name was a natural move.

"Altogether, the three brands made a good offer to the distributor network both in France and in our other markets across Europe," he said. "In setting up the new group, we have been able to better organise the way the brands are marketed in the territories where we operate."

In effect, Eurotechnics Agri has created a single sales organisation that is responsible for marketing the production from the Jean de Bru, Suire and Goizin factories. It is hoped that this strategy will help the group to grow not only in France, but in export markets as well.

"In France there are no exclusive distributor agreements and all dealers can sell our brands if they want to," Mr Lemaire said. "By marketing through one sales company, we can develop the existing relationships we have with dealers for the individual brands and try to sell them products from our other brands as well.

"Of course the dealers will not be obliged to sell machinery from all three brands - and there are parts of the country where grassland machinery is in demand, but very little cultivation equipment is sold - but we are confident that this arrangement will give the dealers a lot more flexibility in what they offer."

Agricultural heritage

The Eurotechnics Agri brands are all well known in France, where they have built-up impressive market shares, despite competition from multinational and local companies in the same market.

"All the brands are well known in France," Mr Lemaire said. "Jean de Bru has 20-25% of the cultivation equipment market, while Goizin boast a 10-15% market share for ploughs and Suire accounts for 15-20% of the flail topper market."

Because of their impressive heritage - Jean de Bru, for example, has been trading for more than 100 years - the individual brand names will still be used, but alongside the Eurotechnics Agri name and logo. The three brands also now share the same colours - red and grey.

The Eurotechnics Agri stand at Sima 2007 brought all the different elements of the new arrangement together for the first time. Machinery from each brand was on show in the new livery and the company's logo - which features a Rhinoceros - was being proudly displayed along with the tagline "Control the strength".

"At Sima 2005 the Suire stand had 400 square metres of stand space, but this year we have taken 800 square metres to launch the Eurotechnics Agri name and show products from all three brands," Mr Lemaire said. "Sima is an important showcase for us and was the ideal event to announce our changes. We have had the opportunity to meet with customers and dealers not only from France, but from all over Europe."

Another feature of the Eurotechnics Agri stand was the promotion of the people behind the brands.

"We have about 200 people working in our three factories in the South of France and they all deserve to be recognised for the work they do in creating the products we sell," Mr Lemaire said. "Eurotechnics Agri has an annual turnover approaching €200 million, which represents about 44% of the Eurotechnics group, and we are proud of our young staff which is using the latest technology to produce high-quality products that farmers want to buy."

UK importer

Among the dealers taking time to find out what the new company is all about was a group taken to the show by UK Eurotechnics Agri importer Abrey & Sons, of Saffron Walden, Essex.

Best known for importing Biso headers into the UK, the company, headed by Toby Abrey, started importing Suire products in to the UK two years ago and was ideally placed to handle the Goizin and Jean de Bru brands as well when the opportunity arose.

"Abrey & Son has done a very good job with Suire's range of toppers and bale unrollers," Mr Lemaire said. "The company has an excellent relationship with its dealers and has a good service philosophy.

"It's never easy to find the right partner in a new territory, but Abrey & Son has proven that it is in an ideal position to take on all the Eurotechnics brands in the UK and Ireland."

While the additional brand names may be new, however, the products could prove familiar to many potential buyers.

"Jean de Bru has, for many years, built cultivation equipment sold in the UK under the Kverneland and Kongskilde brands," Mr Lemaire said, "while in the past, small numbers of Goizin-built ploughs were been sold by various importers."

The range of machinery that Abrey and Son now has access to is immense, and although not everything will be automatically offered on this side of the English Channel, the offering from Jean de Bru includes rollers up to 12.5m wide, disc harrows up to 8m wide and min-till cultivators up to 6m wide that need tractors with 350hp to pull them.

Goizin's plough offering is just as comprehensive, with semi-mounted and mounted models available with up to 13 furrows, as well as a range of tined cultivators for mid-size tractors.

The Suire range is better known in the UK, but even here there are new products on the way, including a new 8m bat-wing mower that is certain to prove attractive to contractors, local authorities and airports.

Sales potential

Abrey & Son's Sales Manager, Malcolm Greves, is excited by the prospects for Eurotechnics Agri in the UK market and is already busy talking to the company's dealers around the UK and Ireland about stocking the new brands.

"I feel that Jean de Bru's rollers and its TwinLiner disc cultivator will have particular potential in the UK, but I can also see the appeal of the ploughs," he said. "Any dealer taking the Goizin range will have a comprehensive offering that has a very high build quality and is comparable to anything else on the market."

Like the existing Bison and Suire franchise arrangements, Abrey & Son will roll out the new Eurotechnics Agri equipment on a restricted franchise basis.

"We will be giving dealers exclusive access to the products in their areas," Mr Greves said. "Although the mix of products that we now offer may mean that the individual brands have to be split between different dealers in a territory.

"We'll keep the brands together where we can, but a strong Suire dealer who already has close links with a cultivation equipment manufacturer will probably not want to take Jean de Bru kit as well."

The firm is still looking for represen tation in some parts of the UK and Ireland, and the first big test of the Eurotechnics Agri equipment in the UK will be at Cereals 2007, where Abrey & Son has stand space booked to show off its new offerings to both farmers and dealers.

"The important thing is to get equipment that has potential in the UK market in front of farmers," Mr Greves said. "We recognise that Eurotechnics Agri is a good company to grow our business, and I'm sure the same will be true of the dealers we work with and farmers that buy the kit.

"It already has the Suire, Jean de Bru and Goizin brands and we know that it is not going to stand still. The only thing missing from the product line-up is a seeding system and I think we can be confident that this is something that will soon be addressed.

"Eurotechnics Agri, with its young, enthusiastic and skilled team, has every intention to build new products or grow through further acquisitions."


Published by Farmers Guide, April 2007. Leading French brands are on their way to the UK A new name in agricultural machinery was launched at this year's Sima Show, where three respected French brands were united under the Eurotechnics Agri banner for the first time. The show, which took place in Paris at the beginning of March, saw Suire, Jean de Bru and Goizin exhibit machinery from their diverse ranges on the same stand - and in the same colours. Eurotechnics was created in 2000 as a high-tech engineering company building components for the automotive and aircraft industries, but it soon diversified into agriculture, buying the French cultivation equipment manufacturer Jean de Bru in 2001. Suire, another French firm specialising in grassland and general farm machinery, was added to the group in 2003, while the opportunity to buy the plough builder Goizin came along in 2005. According to Eurotechnics Agri Director Antoine Lemaire, who also heads up Suire, the latest initiative to bring all three companies under one name was a natural move. "Altogether, the three brands made a good offer to the distributor network both in France and in our other markets across Europe," he said. "In setting up the new group, we have been able to better organise the way the brands are marketed in the territories where we operate." In effect, Eurotechnics Agri has created a single sales organisation that is responsible for marketing the production from the Jean de Bru, Suire and Goizin factories. It is hoped that this strategy will help the group to grow not only in France, but in export markets as well. "In France there are no exclusive distributor agreements and all dealers can sell our brands if they want to," Mr Lemaire said. "By marketing through one sales company, we can develop the existing relationships we have with dealers for the individual brands and try to sell them products from our other brands as well. "Of course the dealers will not be obliged to sell machinery from all three brands - and there are parts of the country where grassland machinery is in demand, but very little cultivation equipment is sold - but we are confident that this arrangement will give the dealers a lot more flexibility in what they offer." Agricultural heritage The Eurotechnics Agri brands are all well known in France, where they have built-up impressive market shares, despite competition from multinational and local companies in the same market. "All the brands are well known in France," Mr Lemaire said. "Jean de Bru has 20-25% of the cultivation equipment market, while Goizin boast a 10-15% market share for ploughs and Suire accounts for 15-20% of the flail topper market." Because of their impressive heritage - Jean de Bru, for example, has been trading for more than 100 years - the individual brand names will still be used, but alongside the Eurotechnics Agri name and logo. The three brands also now share the same colours - red and grey. The Eurotechnics Agri stand at Sima 2007 brought all the different elements of the new arrangement together for the first time. Machinery from each brand was on show in the new livery and the company's logo - which features a Rhinoceros - was being proudly displayed along with the tagline "Control the strength". "At Sima 2005 the Suire stand had 400 square metres of stand space, but this year we have taken 800 square metres to launch the Eurotechnics Agri name and show products from all three brands," Mr Lemaire said. "Sima is an important showcase for us and was the ideal event to announce our changes. We have had the opportunity to meet with customers and dealers not only from France, but from all over Europe." Another feature of the Eurotechnics Agri stand was the promotion of the people behind the brands. "We have about 200 people working in our three factories in the South of France and they all deserve to be recognised for the work they do in creating the products we sell," Mr Lemaire said. "Eurotechnics Agri has an annual turnover approaching €200 million, which represents about 44% of the Eurotechnics group, and we are proud of our young staff which is using the latest technology to produce high-quality products that farmers want to buy." UK importer Among the dealers taking time to find out what the new company is all about was a group taken to the show by UK Eurotechnics Agri importer Abrey & Sons, of Saffron Walden, Essex. Best known for importing Biso headers into the UK, the company, headed by Toby Abrey, started importing Suire products in to the UK two years ago and was ideally placed to handle the Goizin and Jean de Bru brands as well when the opportunity arose. "Abrey & Son has done a very good job with Suire's range of toppers and bale unrollers," Mr Lemaire said. "The company has an excellent relationship with its dealers and has a good service philosophy. "It's never easy to find the right partner in a new territory, but Abrey & Son has proven that it is in an ideal position to take on all the Eurotechnics brands in the UK and Ireland." While the additional brand names may be new, however, the products could prove familiar to many potential buyers. "Jean de Bru has, for many years, built cultivation equipment sold in the UK under the Kverneland and Kongskilde brands," Mr Lemaire said, "while in the past, small numbers of Goizin-built ploughs were been sold by various importers." The range of machinery that Abrey and Son now has access to is immense, and although not everything will be automatically offered on this side of the English Channel, the offering from Jean de Bru includes rollers up to 12.5m wide, disc harrows up to 8m wide and min-till cultivators up to 6m wide that need tractors with 350hp to pull them. Goizin's plough offering is just as comprehensive, with semi-mounted and mounted models available with up to 13 furrows, as well as a range of tined cultivators for mid-size tractors. The Suire range is better known in the UK, but even here there are new products on the way, including a new 8m bat-wing mower that is certain to prove attractive to contractors, local authorities and airports. Sales potential Abrey & Son's Sales Manager, Malcolm Greves, is excited by the prospects for Eurotechnics Agri in the UK market and is already busy talking to the company's dealers around the UK and Ireland about stocking the new brands. "I feel that Jean de Bru's rollers and its TwinLiner disc cultivator will have particular potential in the UK, but I can also see the appeal of the ploughs," he said. "Any dealer taking the Goizin range will have a comprehensive offering that has a very high build quality and is comparable to anything else on the market." Like the existing Bison and Suire franchise arrangements, Abrey & Son will roll out the new Eurotechnics Agri equipment on a restricted franchise basis. "We will be giving dealers exclusive access to the products in their areas," Mr Greves said. "Although the mix of products that we now offer may mean that the individual brands have to be split between different dealers in a territory. "We'll keep the brands together where we can, but a strong Suire dealer who already has close links with a cultivation equipment manufacturer will probably not want to take Jean de Bru kit as well." The firm is still looking for represen tation in some parts of the UK and Ireland, and the first big test of the Eurotechnics Agri equipment in the UK will be at Cereals 2007, where Abrey & Son has stand space booked to show off its new offerings to both farmers and dealers. "The important thing is to get equipment that has potential in the UK market in front of farmers," Mr Greves said. "We recognise that Eurotechnics Agri is a good company to grow our business, and I'm sure the same will be true of the dealers we work with and farmers that buy the kit. "It already has the Suire, Jean de Bru and Goizin brands and we know that it is not going to stand still. The only thing missing from the product line-up is a seeding system and I think we can be confident that this is something that will soon be addressed. "Eurotechnics Agri, with its young, enthusiastic and skilled team, has every intention to build new products or grow through further acquisitions." Antoine Lemaire heads up Suire in France and is also a Director of Eurotechnics Agri.
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