CLAAS
The story began in 1887, when Franz Claas founded a company manufacturing milk centrifuges in Clarholz in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, the company was only officially established in 1913. In 1921, CLAAS registered its first patent: a knotter hook with a knotter jaw with limited range of movement. The development of the first CLAAS combine harvesters started in 1930. The design of the earliest machines was based on the Lanz Bulldog. The first CLAAS baler was manufactured in 1931, and in 1936 the company launched the trailed MDB harvester/thresher/binder, the first combine harvester specifically designed for European harvesting conditions. In 1953, CLAAS introduced its first self-propelled combine harvester, the SF.
In 1956, a new factory was built in Paderborn, and in 1961 a new CLAAS baler factory in Metz (France) was added, which has operated under the name of Usines Claas France S.A. since 1969. Helmut Claas, the son of August Claas, became the Group’s Managing Director, Technology, in 1962, at a time when CLAAS had already established its position as the No. 1 manufacturer of combine harvesters in Europe.
Since the 1990s, the company has expanded its international presence outside Europe. New production facilities and sales offices were established in India, the USA, Russia, China and South America, among others. The acquisition of a majority holding in Renault Agriculture in 2003 added standard tractors to the CLAAS product range. With the construction of the new Electronics Development Centre in Dissen in 2017, CLAAS laid the groundwork for yet another key future-oriented field: the digitalisation of agriculture.
CLAAS has become the European market leader for combine harvesters and the global market leader for self-propelled foragers. CLAAS is also a global agricultural technology leader in the tractor, baler and forage harvester markets. The company’s product portfolio also comprises telehandlers and wheel loaders for agriculture, components and state-of-the-art agricultural information technology.
