Claas

CLAAS KGaA mbH

Type	GmbH & Co. KGaA
Industry	Agricultural machinery, Agriculture
Founded	1913
Headquarters	Harsewinkel, Germany
Key people	Strategy and Corporate Communications, speaker of the executive board
Revenue	€ 3.839bn (2015)
Number of employees	11,535 (2015)
Website	www.claas.com

CLAAS is an agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1913, based in Harsewinkel, Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Germany, in the state of North Rhine Westphalia. The product range includes combine harvesters, forage harvesters, balers, mowers, rakes, tractors, tedders and other harvesting machines. Class produced its 450,000th machine in 2013. CLAAS is the world leader in rubber tracked wheel technology for combine harvesters. Over 45% of all new combines are equipped with rubber tracks. CLAAS also has the largest selling self-propelled forage harvester in the world and manufactures a full line of tractors..

CLAAS offers a choice of 34 models between 72 and 524 hp: the XERION 4x4 high-horsepower tractors, the AXION, ARION and ATOS standard tractors, the compact ELIOS class and the NEXOS models in the narrow gauge range. This extensive and impressive portfolio is specifically designed to meet the needs of modern agriculture.

The start of the CLAAS group took place in 1913 when August Claas, developed the company in Clarholz, Germany. In 1919, the business was transferred to Harsewinkel, Germany, where the company focused on the production of reapers. Two years later the company obtained their first patent – for a knotter to efficiently bind straw. In 1930, the first Harvester was developed with the European market in mind with the first Pick-up Baler following in 1934. In 1936 CLAAS started to market the first combine harvester built in Europe, as opposed to imported machines previously available. They then offered trailed combine harvesters (reaper-binders) to the European market.

In 1946, following the war, CLAAS introduced self-propelled combine harvesters. By the mid 1950s they opened a new factory in Paderborn, Germany, and their first outside Germany – in Metz, France in 1961. CLAAS took over Josef Bautz, (agricultural machinery factory) in 1969 and expanded the product range to include green harvest machinery.

The Claas Museum is located in the Claas Technoparc in Harsewinkel, Germany, and features a display of historical harvesting machines and agriculture equipment. Visitation is during working days only.