Hungarian CLAAS importer AXIÁL Kft. is restructuring its portfolio as part of a long-term strategic transformation. The company applies further measures to accelerate its strategic realignment as a full-service provider in ag machinery. As a result, it will divest its subsidiary AgroVario Kft, distributor of Fendt and other ag machinery brands in Hungary.
The global agricultural sector is facing new and complex challenges such as volatile markets, sustainability guidelines and advancing digitalization. Challenges, that also affect Hungarian farmers and contractors. “Hungary is among the Top 10 grain producers in the European Union”, says Jan-Hendrik Mohr, CLAAS CEO. “At CLAAS, we identified the potential quite early and started business in this region decades ago selling combines and other machines. We also established a factory for cutterbars in Törökszentmiklós 26 years ago and have several joint-ventures with suppliers from this country. With our exclusive importer AXIÁL Kft., since the year 2000 we have continuously professionalized our consulting, sales and service and expanded our portfolio in a trustful as well as successful collaboration. The time is there for taking the next steps to help make Hungarian farmers businesses more productive, more efficient and more sustainable.”
Correlations between services
With its 3 decades of tradition, AXIÁL always represented a prominent role in the Hungarian market. The family-owned company has showcased its agility and ability to adapt many times in the past, which is a key factor in providing the best possible service throughout its portfolio. This proactive philosophy is evident again where AXIAL importer is working on the restructuring of their business to exploit the correlations between their many services, while simultaneously implementing new expertise.
As an important part of this long-term strategy, AXIÁL Kft. announced the consolidation of its product portfolio and will introduce even more customer-tailored solutions, so as to be able to adapt to every unique need in the Hungarian market.
As a consequence, AXIÁL Kft. will divest its subsidiary AgroVario Kft. in early 2024*. This decision to streamline their product offering allows AXIÁL Kft. to exploit the correlations between their many services, strengthen their exclusive CLAAS importer and distribution business and focus on further strategic milestones for the coming months and years.
Comprehensive transformation
The restructuring also introduces a new umbrella brand for the Hungarian market called “AXIÁL Group”, which is now officially the hub for not just the three main companies (AXIÁL, the rental business MANAX, and their financial provider AFS), but also for the wider portfolio, including the multiple agricultural enterprises of the Harsányi family, such as the arable farming and animal husbandry company located in the vicinity of the AXIÁL headquarters. This combination gives AXIÁL a dominant market presence.
“Along with other actions, the long-term strategic plans of the AXIÁL Group will revolve around offering complex technological support for Hungarian farmers, exploiting all benefits from the synergies between the various members of the group of companies, enriched with the new and comprehensive skillsets coming from the innovation projects related to soil protection, precision farming, and water-management”, explains Virág Harsányi of the owner family of AXIÁL. “As family businesses, both AXIÁL and CLAAS think in the long-term while having something important in common: we run farms ourselves and therefore know the everyday challenges that farmers face.”
*The AXIÁL-AgroVario divest is still pending competition authority approval, based on the statement of the parties.
