Deere & Company

Deere & Company (usually known by its brand name John Deere) (NYSE: DE) is an American corporation based in Moline, Illinois, and the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world. It currently stands at 98th rank in Fortune 500 ranking. Deere and Company agricultural products, usually sold under the John Deere name, include tractors, combine harvesters, balers, planters/seeders, ATVs and forestry equipment. The company is also a leading supplier of construction equipment, as well as equipment used in lawn, grounds and turf care, such as ride-on lawn mowers, string trimmers, chainsaws, snowthrowers and for a short period, snowmobiles.
 
Deere & Company was founded by John Deere in the year 1837.

John Deere products are known for their distinctive green and yellow color scheme. The company's slogan is "Nothing runs like a Deere" and has a picture of a deer as a logo, with wordplay pun on "nothing runs like a deer."

Additionally, John Deere manufactures engines used in heavy equipment and provides financial services and other related activities that support the core businesses.

Deere & Company Today

As of 2006, the Deere & Company employs approximately 47,000 people in 27 countries worldwide, including the United States, Australia, Turkey, Canada, United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, Poland, and Mexico, among many others. Inside the United States, the company's primary locations are its administrative center in Moline, Illinois, as well as various locations in the Midwest and southeastern United States. Most manufacturing sites are in Iowa or Illinois, as well as locations in Europe. Carl Westby is known as the person that coined the phrase "Nothing runs like a Deere."

Major North American factories include:

• Waterloo Works (foundry, engines, large agricultural tractors, drive trains, service parts, product engineering center) Waterloo, Iowa
• Harvester Works(large combine harvesters) East Moline, IL
• Cylinder Division (hydraulic cylinders) Moline, Illinois
• Seeding Group (planting equipment) Moline, Illinois and Valley City, North Dakota
• Davenport Works (wheel loaders, motor graders, articulated dump trucks, forestry equipment) Davenport, Iowa
• Dubuque Works (backhoes, crawlers, skid-steer loaders, forestry equipment) Dubuque, Iowa
• Des Moines Works (tillage equipment, cotton harvesters, sprayers) Ankeny, Iowa
• Ottumwa Works (hay and forage equipment) Ottumwa, Iowa
• John Deere (cane harvesting equipment, scrapers) Louisiana
• Horicon Works (lawn & garden and turf care) Horicon, Wisconsin
• Augusta Works (small commercial and agricultural tractors) Augusta, Georgia
• Welland Works (agricultural and commercial front loaders, rotary cutters, Gators) Welland, Ontario

Other Important Factories:

• John Deere Equipment Pvt Ltd (5000 Series Tractor manufacturers) Pune, India
• Werke Mannheim (6000 Series Tractors) Mannheim, Germany
• Werke Zweibrücken (Harvesting equipment) Zweibrücken, Germany
• John Deere Forestry Oy, Joensuu, Finland works: Cut-to-Length Forestry equipment
• John Deere Reman - Edmonton: Remanufacturing facility for hydraulic and powertrain components for off-highway products. (C&F Division) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Subsidiaries & Affiliates

• AGRIS Corporation (John Deere Agri Services)
• Chamberlain Tractors (Australia)
• John Deere Capital Corporation
• John Deere Landscapes - a supplier of landscaping plants, materials, and irrigation equipment
• Waratah Forestry Attachments - manufacturer of forestry harvesting heads
• Agreentech
• NavCom Technology, Inc. (Precision positioning systems and intelligent mobile equipment technologies) Torrance, CA
• Phoenix International Corporation (Ruggedized Off-Road Electronics) Fargo, ND
• ReGen Technologies - remanufacturing facility for engines and engine components
• Ningbo Benye Tractor & Automobile Manufacture Co. Ltd. Ningbo, China - Chinese Tractor Company

Collaborations and Partnerships

• North American distributor of Hitachi-branded construction equipment.
• Deere-Hitachi, located in Kernersville, NC, is jointly owned by Deere & Company and Hitachi, and manufactures hydraulic excavators for the North American market.
• A partnership with Bell Equipment of South Africa provided Deere with articulated dump truck technology. In exchange, Bell manufactures Deere backhoe loaders in South Africa for distribution internationally.
• John Deere is provider of backhoe loader technology to Telco Construction Equipment Company, a subsidiary of Tata group in India.Source

Environmental record

Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst placed Deere & Co. on its "Toxic 100" list of top corporate air polluters in the US for the year 2000. Deere's "toxic score" (pounds released x toxicity x population exposure) ranked it 18th on the list. The score accounts for both fugitive (unintentional) and stack (intentional) releases. In terms of volume alone, Deere's roughly 410,000 pounds of toxic chemicals released in 2000 placed it 79th among the 99 companies listed. Over 90% of the company's score came from the release of 3055 lbs of diisocyanates in 2002.[3]On March 23 2007 a John Deere facility has been recognized for its "green" efforts, and admitted into a select group of environmental high performers. "We’re proud of our environmental record and believe that this recognition shows what our factories can achieve," says Laurie Zelnio, Deere & Company Director, Safety & Environment. "The Davenport Works has provided an example for other units to follow." "The way we look at it, if any company is `green,' it's us. Green is our brand color and Running Green is a play on our `Nothing Runs Like a Deere' slogan," says Robert W. Lane, chairman and CEO, Deere & Company, Moline, Ill. "We have a vested interest in striking a healthy balance with nature. I firmly believe John Deere can make its biggest contribution to sustainability by growing our business while simultaneously protecting the health and safety of the environment, our employees and customers."

Other

Deere & Company is ranked 27th in AARP's list of Best Employers for Workers Over 50. Deere & Company tied with Cooper Tire & Rubber for the second-lowest score (33 out of 100) of all rated companies in its category in the Human Rights Campaign's 2008 Corporate Equality Index, a measure of Gay and Lesbian workplace equality.