KUHN Group, a leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of hay and forage, livestock feeding and bedding, tillage, planting and seeding, manure and fertilizer spreading, landscape maintenance and crop protection equipment, announces the acquisition of KRAUSE Corporation, a privately held North American leader in the field of tillage equipment and grain drills located in Hutchinson, Kansas, USA.

KRAUSE Corporation was founded in 1916, and is specialized in the design and manufacturing of primary and secondary tillage, strip-till, and vertical tillage equipment and grain drills for tractors of 100 to 550 horsepower. For calendar year 2010, the company’s revenues exceeded US $61 million, with a workforce of 230 employees.

KUHN Group, headquartered in Saverne, France, employs in excess of 3,500 employees worldwide, and currently operates seven manufacturing companies, located in Saverne, Châteaubriant, La Copechagnière and Chéméré (France), Geldrop (The Netherlands), as well as in Brodhead, (Wisconsin, USA) and Passo Fundo (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil).

Kuhn Group is represented worldwide through a large network of independent dealers served by a number of international marketing and distribution subsidiaries and independent distributors. In 2010, KUHN Group generated 617 million Euros sales.

KUHN North America, Inc., headquartered in Brodhead, WI, employs approximately 500 people, manufactures and distributes KUHN equipment, and operates distribution centers in the states of New York, Tennessee, Colorado, Nebraska, Washington, and the Province of Quebec, Canada.

KRAUSE Corporation will be renamed KUHN KRAUSE Inc at Closing and will operate as a subsidiary of KUHN North America. Mr. Thierry Krier, KUHN North America’s president and CEO, along with the executive management teams of KUHN KRAUSE and KUHN North America, will be responsible for the strategic development and integration of KRAUSE into KUHN Group.

KUHN Group’s key reasons for this acquisition include:

- The addition of a wide range of high horsepower tillage tools and grain drills that ideally complements KUHN Group’s current product offering;

- The entry of KUHN Group into the large North American crop production sector and the US corn belt in particular, but also the addition of product lines of high interest to large grain farming areas such as Eastern and Central Europe;

- The addition of a focused research and development and manufacturing center for high horsepower crop production machines in the US Midwest, with access to product evaluation and testing with some of the largest and most demanding farm operations;

- The resulting wide product offering of KUHN Group reinforces Kuhn’s strategy and leadership position in the crop production segments and is expected to contribute to KUHN Group’s worldwide growth.