Deere and Company
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : DE S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Heavy equipment |
| Founded |
Grand Detour, Illinois (1837) |
| Founder | John Deere |
| Headquarters | Moline, Illinois, United States |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Samuel R. Allen (CEO and President) |
| Products | Agriculture, Construction, Forestry, Consumer & Commercial equipment, Diesel engines, Automobiles |
| Services | Financial services |
| Revenue |
 US$26.644 billion (2016)
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US$2.988 billion (2016)
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US$1.524 billion (2016)
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| Total assets |
 US$57.981 billion (2016)
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| Total equity |
US$6.520 billion (2016)
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Number of employees
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56,767 (2016) |
| Website | www |
Deere & Company (brand name John Deere) is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, transmissions, gearboxes) used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment. In 2016, it was listed as 97th in the Fortune 500 America's ranking and was ranked 364th in the global ranking in 2016. John Deere also provides financial services and other related activities.
Deere is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DE. The company's slogan is "Nothing Runs Like a Deere", and its logo is a leaping deer, with the words 'JOHN DEERE' under it. The logo has been used by the company for over 155 years.
Deere & Company began when John Deere, born in Rutland, Vermont, USA on February 7, 1804, moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1836 to escape bankruptcy in Vermont. Already an established blacksmith, Deere opened a 1,378-square-foot (128 m2) shop in Grand Detour in 1837, which allowed him to serve as a general repairman in the village, as well as a manufacturer of small tools such as pitchforks and shovels. Small tools production was just a start; the item that set him apart, was the self-scouring steel plow, which was pioneered in 1837 when John Deere fashioned a Scottish steel saw blade into a plow. Prior to Deere's steel plow, most farmers used iron or wooden plows to which the rich Midwestern soil stuck, so had to be cleaned frequently. The smooth-sided steel plow solved this problem, and greatly aided migration into the American Great Plains in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The traditional way of doing business was to make the product as and when it was ordered. This style was very slow, As Deere realized that this was not going to be a viable business model, he increased the rate of production by manufacturing plows before putting them up for sale; this allowed customers to not only see what they were buying beforehand, but also allowed his customers to purchase his products straight away. Word of his products began to spread quickly.
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Wikipedia