Massey Ferguson: История американского производителя сельскохозяйственной техники

US company; manufacturer of agricultural equipment

Massey Ferguson S. A. S. is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in Toronto, then Brantford, Ontario, Canada, until 1988. The company transferred its headquarters in 1991 to Buffalo, New York, U. S. before it was acquired by AGCO, the new owner of its former competitor Allis Chalmers.

In 1847, Daniel Massey established the Newcastle Foundry and Machine Manufactory in what is now Newcastle, Ontario. The company made some of the world's first mechanical threshers, at first by assembling parts from the United States, but eventually designing and building its own equipment. Daniel Massey's son, Hart Massey, renamed the enterprise the Massey Manufacturing Co. In 1879, the company moved to Toronto and it soon became one of the city's leading employers. It was located on King Street West at Strachan Avenue, occupying the former Toronto exhibition grounds, the site of Toronto's Crystal Palace, just south of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum and north of the Central Prison. The huge complex of factories, consisting of a site with plant and head office at 915 King Street West (now part of Liberty Village), became one of the best known features of the city. The company expanded further and began to sell its products internationally. which became the largest agricultural equipment maker in the British Empire. Massey Harris made threshing machines and reapers, as well as safety bicycles, introducing a shaft driven model in 1898. In 1910, Massey Harris acquired the Johnston Harvester Company of Batavia, New York, making it one of Canada's first multinational firms. Members of the family accomplished other things in business. Vincent Massey later became Governor General of Canada. Raymond Massey became a noted actor in American films. The Massey family used its fortune to improve the city of Toronto and many institutions including the University of Guelph, University of Toronto, Upper Canada College, Crescent School, Appleby College, Massey Hall, and Metropolitan United Church were partially financed by the Masseys. The company's early tractor models included the 20 horsepower Massey Harris GP 15/22 (1930–36), 25 horsepower 'Massey Harris Pacemaker' (1936–1939), 35 horsepower Model 101 (1938–1942), Massey Harris Pony, Model 20, Model 81, and Model 744. Grain harvesting was revolutionized by Massey engineer Tom Carroll in 1938, with the world's first affordable, mass produced, self propelled combine— the No. 20. Massey Harris also produced one of the world's first four wheel drive tractors. E. P. Taylor, one of C. D. Howe's dollar a year men, joined the board of directors in 1942, and Eric Phillips joined management in 1946. The company became one of the prime jewels of the Argus Corporation. The final generation of Massey Harris tractors, introduced immediately after World War II, included the 25 horsepower M H 22 series, the 35 horsepower M H 33 series, the 45 horsepower M H 44 series and the 55 horsepower M H 55 series. In 1952, the M H 22 was replaced by the M H 23 Mustang. In 1955, the 30 horsepower Massey Harris 50 was introduced after the merger that created Massey Harris Ferguson. It was based on the Ferguson TO 35 and was also produced as the F 40 for Ferguson dealers. The MH 50 was available in several configurations: utility, high crop utility, or row crop with a choice of single, tricycle, or wide adjustable front ends. In 1956, the M H 33 was replaced by the MH 333, while the M H 44 was replaced by the M H 444 and the M H 55 was replaced by the M H 555. The tractors were commonly known as the "triple series" and were mechanically similar to their predecessors, however they featured new styling which included a slightly different hood design, chrome trim on the grill and hood, and a different color scheme. They were also available with power steering, live power take off (PTO), and hydraulics. The Massey Harris triple series tractors remained in production until 1958.

In 1953, Massey Harris merged with the Ferguson Company to become Massey Harris Ferguson, before shortening it to Massey Ferguson in 1958.

In 1959, Massey bought 100% of Landini which is based in Italy. Landini has built many models for Massey over the years, especially vineyard and crawler models. Massey sold 66% to ARGO SpA in 1989, another percentage later to Iseki, and the final part was sold to ARGO in 2000.

In 1959, Perkins Engines from Peterborough, England was purchased. Perkins was the main diesel engine supplier for Massey Ferguson for many years.

In 1966, Massey purchased 32% of the Spanish tractor and auto company Ebro, or Motor Iberica. Ebro had previously built Ford tractors under license, but now began building models for Massey, and Massey models under license. Massey sold its interest to Nissan in the 1980s. In the early 1960s, Massey Ferguson moved their head office from 915 King Street to the Sun Life Tower at 200 University Avenue in the Downtown Toronto. In 1969, Massey Ferguson began producing a line of snowmobiles under the name 'Ski Whiz'. The snowmobile line was discontinued in 1977, due to a decline in sales.

In 1973, Massey purchased German Eicher tractor and many Massey licensed Eichers were built. They later sold their interest and Dromson now owns Eicher which now builds specialized tractors for vineyards and such. The firm purchased control of Hanomag in 1974. After a loss of $250 million over the next five years, Hanomag was sold off.

On 16 August 1978, Conrad Black, whose family had obtained control of Argus Corporation, an investor in Massey Ferguson, became active in Massey Ferguson's management. In 1977, chairman Albert A. Thornbrough received a $471,000 salary, the highest executive salary in Canada at the time. During the 50 years between 1929 and 1979, the firm made more than 4% profit on its sales only five times. Under Black's leadership, Massey Ferguson instituted significant cost cutting programmes and down sized its work force in an attempt to improve its profitability. During the late 1970s, production was relocated from Toronto to a new, large facility in Brantford, Ontario. In 1978, Massey Ferguson was the first to introduce an electronic control system for the three point hitch on a tractor. However a worldwide decline in the agricultural equipment market combined with high inflation, high domestic interest rates and a major recession, caused Massey Ferguson to slip into a loss and seek relief from creditors. On 31 October 1979, Volkswagen AG made an informal offer for 51% of the firm, but was rebuffed by Black. On 23 May 1980, Black resigned as chairman. In a subsequent series of detailed and lengthy letters to Herb Gray—the then Canadian Minister of Industry under the government of Pierre Trudeau—he remarked on the challenges faced by the firm, and outlined his solution, which would have seen the Canadian and Ontario governments as well as Argus Corporation refloat the ailing firm. Black failed to obtain a suitable response, and resolved to cut his losses.

In October 1980, Argus donated its shares in Massey Ferguson to the employee's pension plans, leading the way to a bail out from the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario for the collapsing business, which later was renamed Varity Corporation. In 1986, Varity spun off several money losing divisions into an entity called Massey Combines Corporation. Massey Combines Corporation was headquartered in Brantford and became insolvent on 4 March 1988, and its assets were re acquired by Massey Ferguson. Varity left Toronto and relocated its head office to the Williams Butler House at 672 Delaware Avenue in the Millionaire Row area of Buffalo, New York. The Toronto manufacturing complex was demolished and the property sold and re developed, leaving only its head office building standing. Despite its hardships, Massey Ferguson was selling 25% more tractors than its nearest competitors at this time. In 1992, a management buyout of MF Industrial created Fermec, which ceased trading in 2001 when it was taken over by the Terex Corporation, formerly a unit of General Motors. The sale encompassed all construction equipment from Massey. It was then purchased by Case Corporation in 1997. In 1994, Massey Ferguson's worldwide holdings were purchased by the United States based AGCO Corporation for $328 million in cash and $18 million in stock. In August 1996, Varity merged with Lucas Automotive to become LucasVarity. After a series of mergers and takeovers, the remains of LucasVarity were acquired by the United States company TRW in 1999 for $6.53 billion.

While Massey Ferguson had a strong global presence at 20% market share in 1994, it sold 87% of its machines outside North America. In June 2012, the facility in Jackson, Minnesota was expanded to start building Massey Ferguson and comparable AGCO "Challenger" models for the North American market. Since production began at AGCO Jackson, the facility has produced "7600" series and "8600" series Massey Ferguson tractors for the North American market. Production at the Jackson facility also included the 7700, 8700, 7700S, and 8700S Massey Ferguson tractors. In January 2020, AGCO announced the expansion of its factory in Beauvais, France. After the expansion, the factory will cover a total area of 54ha and employ up to 2,500 people. New Massey Ferguson models will be designed, built, and tested in the factory. With the completion of this factory expansion at the Beauvais location, the production of the 7700S and 8700S models in Jackson ceased and returned to Beauvais only in the year 2022 as the new expansion is expected to fulfill global demand for those high horsepower tractor models. The move was made by AGCO's management due to the increased demand for the company's self propelled application equipment and Fendt track tractors which are produced at the location in Jackson. Since AGCO acquired the company, there has been a resurgence and expansion of the Massey Ferguson brand worldwide. Row crop tractors have continuously been produced in the Beauvais, France factory since 1960 and in June 2022, the 1,000,000th tractor was produced bearing the Massey Ferguson brand. The first tractor model from the Beauvais plant was an 825 and the millionth tractor was an 8S.305 with Dyna VT transmission. (AGCO Beauvais France) Massey Ferguson tractor production factories also built tractors marketed by AGCO under the "Challenger" brand, and also specific model ranges for Iseki. In July 2020, Massey Ferguson launched the change of the tractor lineup, starting with the 8S Series that replaced the 7700S range. In 2021, more models were launched. In January, the 5S Series and in September the 6S Series and 7S Series. This change also brought a new model numbering. For example, an MF 5S.105 – the "5S" stands for the series and the last three digits stands for the maximum power. In 2022, Massey Ferguson presented the new compact tractor 1700M Series and the new specialized tractor 3S Series. At Agritechnica in November 2023, Massey Ferguson announced the release of the 9S series, ranging in power from 285 425 horsepower.