AGCO have announced that the Challenger Team, Challenger track tractors and sprayers will be integrated into the Fendt AGCO brand in the Europe and Middle East sales region.



This action applies exclusively to the AGCO Region EME Europe and Middle East. Challenger products will continue to be sold through the AGCO network in the AGCO NA North America, SA South America, and APA Asia-Pacific, Africa regions.

Part of the project in Europe includes relocating production of Challenger products from AGCO in Grubbenvorst, Netherlands, to the Hohenmölsen AGCO production site, in which the trailed sprayers and various Fendt Katana forage harvestor models are produced. Research and development and other key functions remain in Grubbenvorst.

In a statement explaining the move AGCO said, "The new structures in the Production and Sales/Marketing divisions will increase efficiency appreciably, and will further strengthen AGCO in the Europe and Middle East region. They represent another step in the corporate strategy to offer customers and dealers the best overall package for all agricultural enterprises, operating strategies, and agricultural applications."

According to current planning, Fendt dealers in Western and Central Europe will be able to offer and sell the Fendt track tractors and sprayers following Agritechnica 2017. Delivery of the first machines to end customers is planned for Q1 2018. 

“Integration of the Challenger products into the Fendt product programme in Europe is another important step forward, and is in keeping with the Fendt full line strategy”, said Peter-Josef Paffen, AGCO/Fendt CEO. “The broad product portfolio is designed to offer our customers and dealers a virtually complete and complementary range of machines, for nowadays, professional agricultural enterprises and contractors demand a wide range of high-quality, high-performance products. This is because machines today are highly complex, and will be able to communicate even more closely with each another in future through networking.”