The Fendt Forum in Marktoberdorf was brightly lit until late into the evening last Tuesday. The discussions were too good and the exchange among each other too valuable for the members of the newly founded Fendt Classic Club International e.V. (FCCI) to want to go home or to their hotel. Fendt fans had traveled from Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Tyrol and all over Germany to attend the club's first regular general meeting. The attraction was an attractive program with top-class speakers and the ideal opportunity to get to know each other in a convivial atmosphere. To kick off the event, members were also invited to an exclusive factory tour, which had become rare in the past two pandemic years.
First general meeting of the Fendt Classic Club International with over a hundred participants
The Fendt Forum in Marktoberdorf was brightly lit until late into the evening last Tuesday. The discussions were too good and the exchange among each other too valuable for the members of the newly founded Fendt Classic Club International e.V. (FCCI) to want to go home or to their hotel. Fendt fans had traveled from Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Tyrol and all over Germany to attend the club's first regular general meeting. The attraction was an attractive program with top-class speakers and the ideal opportunity to get to know each other in a convivial atmosphere. To kick off the event, members were also invited to an exclusive factory tour, which had become rare in the past two pandemic years.
In five groups, the FCCI members explored Fendt's entire tractor production chain - starting at the transmission plant, continuing through assembly and painting, and ending with the so-called "marriage", i.e. the joining of the cab and chassis.
(from left) Walter Wagner (Vice Chairman FCCI | Managing Director Research & Development Fendt), Bernhard Bartussek (Treasurer | Head of Tax Department Fendt), Hans Heinle (Secretary FCCI ) and Sepp Nuscheler (First Chairman FCCI)
The subsequent meeting in the Fendt Forum was opened by club chairman Sepp Nuscheler with enthusiastic greetings. The former Fendt press spokesman probably couldn't quite believe that Fendt fans from six countries (including Norway) had already joined the club since it was founded at the end of October last year. The first presentation was then given by Christoph Gröblinghoff. The Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board informed FCCI members about the current challenges facing Fendt Global. The past years had been tense due to the Corona pandemic, the war situation, interrupted supply chains, missing microchips, various cost increases and, last but not least, a large-scale cyber attack on the company's EDP.
Christoph Gröblinghoff (Chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board)
"Hardly a week goes by when I don't get one of these crisis calls. The difficult tasks don't stop," Gröblinghoff reported. At the same time, he assured that the company is stable, as is the agricultural machinery market. "We still have high investments planned!" More than 250 million euros are to be invested in the further development of the Fendt sites in Wolfenbüttel, Feucht, Marktoberdorf, Hohenmölsen, Bäumenheim and Breganze (ITA) in 2022/2023. "And we will also be launching some new products. Among them a new tractor," Gröblinghoff announced. Last but not least, he said, Fendt was committed to the issue of sustainability and was working on optimizations in this regard in various fields of action, e.g. supply chains, production and personnel. Because after all, the climate crisis was also one of the challenging topics he had mentioned at the beginning of his presentation.
Sepp Nuscheler then brought the Fendt Classic Club International back into focus. The club is now officially registered in the registry and also the requested non-profit status was recognized. 161 members are currently on the list, and Nuscheler and his board are particularly pleased with the balance in terms of age: "The youngest member is just 6 years old, the oldest is over 90, and the strongest group is between 40 and 49." All of them received their own club card that evening and will in future benefit from price advantages in the Fendt Shop, receive newsletters and the Fendt Focus magazine, as well as invitations to joint trips. A tour of the Fendt factory in Asbach-Bäumenheim is planned for later this year. The association itself also plans to be present at the Historic Field Day in Nordhorn in August and at the Main Agricultural Festival in Stuttgart in September and October.
Walter Wagner (Vice President and Managing Director of Research and Development at Fendt)
Another highlight was Walter Wagner, Vice President and Managing Director of Research and Development at Fendt and a member of the FCCI Board of Directors, with his look at the megatrends in tractor development. Sustainability and productivity/growth will face each other in the coming years and decades. AGCO/Fendt plans to meet these challenges with the so-called CAREF strategy; this focuses on the fields of connectivity, automation, robotics, electrification and Future Fuels. "Zero-emission technology is required for sustainable solutions," Wagner informed. He put electrics, hydrogen, but also biomethane and synthetic fuels up for debate as energy providers. Wagner assumes that drive solutions will be more diverse in the future.
In the following discussion, the members of the FCCI participated actively and brought some suggestions for the further development of the association. One idea was to create an overview of the existing vintage tractors with location and owner - for a targeted exchange. However, one or the other exciting discussion partner was certainly found the same evening at the subsequent get-together in the Fendt Forum.
