Profile: Deere & Company (DE)

Deere & Company, together with its subsidiaries (John Deere), incorporated in 1958, operates in three business segments: agriculture and turf segment, construction and forestry segment, and credit segment. The agriculture and turf segment, created by combining the former agricultural equipment and commercial and consumer equipment segments, manufactures and distributes a range of farm and turf equipment, and related service parts. The construction and forestry segment manufactures, distributes to dealers and sells at retail a range of machines and service parts used in construction, earthmoving, material handling and timber harvesting. The credit segment finances sales and leases by John Deere dealers of new and used agriculture and turf equipment and construction and forestry equipment. In addition, it provides wholesale financing to dealers of the foregoing equipment, provides operating loans, finances retail revolving charge accounts, offers certain crop risk mitigation products and invests in wind energy generation. In November 2008, the Company acquired the remaining 50% ownership interest in ReGen Technologies, LLC. In 2008, the Company completed the acquisition of T-Systems International, Inc. and Plastro Irrigation Systems, Ltd.

Agriculture and Turf

The John Deere agriculture and turf segment was created by combining the former agricultural equipment segment and the commercial and consumer equipment segment. The segment manufactures and distributes a range of agricultural and turf equipment, and related service parts. The segment is consolidating its equipment operations into five product platforms, including crop harvesting (combines, cotton and sugarcane harvesters and related front-end equipment and sugarcane loaders); turf and utility (utility vehicles, riding lawn equipment, walk behind mowers, commercial mowing equipment, golf course equipment, implements for mowing, tilling, snow and debris handling, aerating and many other residential, commercial, golf and sports turf care applications; and other outdoor power products); hay and forage (self-propelled forage harvesters and attachments, balers and mowers); crop care (tillage, seeding and application equipment, including sprayers, nutrient management and soil preparation machinery); and tractors (loaders and large, medium and utility tractors). The segment also provides integrated agricultural management systems technology and landscapes and nursery products.

In addition to the John Deere brand, the agriculture and turf segment also manufactures and sells a variety of equipment attachments under the Frontier brand name, walk-behind mowers and scarifiers in Europe under the SABO brand name, and tractors in the People’s Republic of China under the Benye brand name. The segment also builds products for sale by mass retailers, including The Home Depot and Lowe’s. John Deere Landscapes, a unit of the segment, distributes irrigation equipment, nursery products and landscape supplies, including seed, fertilizer and hardscape materials to landscape service professionals. John Deere Water, a unit of the agriculture and turf segment, manufactures and distributes precision agriculture irrigation equipment and supplies.

Construction and Forestry

John Deere construction, earthmoving, material handling and forestry equipment includes a range of backhoe loaders, crawler dozers and loaders, four-wheel-drive loaders, excavators, motor graders, articulated dump trucks, landscape loaders, skid-steer loaders, log skidders, log feller bunchers, log loaders, log forwarders, log harvesters and a range of attachments. The segment’s forestry machines and attachments are distributed under the John Deere and Waratah brand names. In addition to the equipment manufactured by the construction and forestry segment, John Deere purchases certain products from other manufacturers for resale.

Pursuant to the agreements between John Deere and Bell Equipment Limited (Bell), Bell and Deere collaborate to design articulated dump trucks, which are manufactured by Deere in the United States for John Deere’s distribution under the Deere trade name in North, Central and South America. Deere licenses Bell to manufacture and sell certain Deere-designed construction equipment in specified territories of Africa. Bell is also the distributor of certain Deere manufactured construction equipment under the Bell trade name and forestry equipment under the Deere trade name in certain territories of Africa.

John Deere and Hitachi have a joint venture for the manufacture of hydraulic excavators and track log loaders in the United States and Canada. John Deere also distributes Hitachi brands of construction and mining equipment in North, Central and South America. John Deere also has supply agreements with Hitachi under which a range of construction, earthmoving, material handling and forestry products manufactured by John Deere in the United States, Finland and New Zealand are distributed by Hitachi in certain Asian markets. In 2008, John Deere entered into a joint venture with Xuzhou Bohui Science & Technology Development CO. Ltd. (Xuzhou) by purchasing a 50% ownership interest in Xuzhou’s wholly owned excavator manufacturing subsidiary, Xuzhou Xuwa Excavator Machinery CO. Ltd., now known as Xuzhou XCG John Deere Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Xuzhou XCG).

The Company also owns Nortrax, Inc. and Nortrax Canada Inc. (collectively called Nortrax). Nortrax is a John Deere dealer for construction, earthmoving, material handling and forestry equipment in a range of markets in the United States and Canada. John Deere also owns retail forestry operations in Finland, Ireland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Credit Operations

The Company’s credit segment provide and administer financing for retail purchases from John Deere dealers of new equipment manufactured by the Company’s agriculture and turf and construction and forestry divisions and used equipment taken in trade for this equipment. The Company and John Deere Construction & Forestry Company are together referred to as the sales companies. John Deere Capital Corporation (Capital Corporation), a United States credit subsidiary, generally purchases retail instalment sales and loan contracts (retail notes) from the sales companies.

The Company competes with AGCO Corporation, CNH Global N.V., Kubota Tractor Corporation, The Toro Company, Caterpillar, Inc., Komatsu Ltd., Volvo Construction Equipment, CNH Global N.V., Tigercat Industries Inc. and Ponsse Plc.