KUBOTA are continuing to broaden their market appeal with the recent acquisition of Great Plains Manufacturing.
The US manufacturing company specialises in sowing and tillage equipment.
Linda Salem, president, Great Plains Manufacturing, said the launch of the product range through Kubota Tractors Australia was part of a global strategy to integrate the two companies.
“We were fortunate we had worked with Kubota for over ten years before the acquisition with our Landpride compact tractor equipment attachments,” she said.
“So this is our foray into the Agricultural side.
“We complement the Kubota offering by including a full agriculture line of planting, tillage and fertiliser equipment.”
Ms Salem sees the deal as an opportunity to expand global sales.
“I think Australia is a place where we can really expand our sales and take advantage of the Kubota network that is here,” she said.
Ms Salem said the move to implement sizes to suit the Kubota range of tractors happened almost coincidentally.
“We have traditionally been orientated to the large farmer,” she said.
“But over the past five to six years as we have expanded into western Europe some of our sizes have gotten smaller and have certainly been folding into a three metre configuration for transportation.
“All the machinery is manufactured in Kansas, we have six manufacturing facilities.”
Ms Salem recently visited Australia for the Kubota dealer conference held in Avalon and enjoyed the opportunity to interact with dealers from across Australia.
“I’ve been out in the field demonstrations and people were really paying attention and interested in the field and seeing what the equipment can do,” she said.
“The dealers and their customers want to see what happens in the dirt, particularly with tillage equipment.
Kubota said Great Plains will continue to operate as a separate manufacturing brand.
The author travelled to the Kubota dealer conference in Adelong as a guest of Kubota.