The first AMAZONE plant abroad

AMAZONE factory overview, part 2: Forbach

AMAZONE's first subsidiary outside of Germany is located in Forbach, France. This site is located directly on the Franco-German border near Saarbrücken.

At the beginning of the 1960s, France became the most important export market thanks to strong sales of the ZA twin disc fertiliser spreader. It therefore made sense to have our own facility here. This also took place against the backdrop of the developing Franco-German friendship based on the Élysée Treaty of 1963.

AMAZONE was offered a company with sufficient space on favourable terms, which even had two railway sidings. Dr Friederichs (a member of the management at the time) played a key role in the negotiations with the previous owner, who was of Italian origin.
However, the company was in a deplorable, partly dilapidated state. This affected both the offices and the production buildings. In addition, the large factory hall was open to the weather and was heated with open coke ovens in winter. It is astonishing that around 50 employees had worked at the previous company despite these conditions. This made it all the more important to those responsible at AMAZONE to restore production, administration, workplaces and social facilities into a decent condition. Over the years, not only were the facilities renovated, but new halls were also built and a large adjoining site was purchased from a haulage company. The offices, which had previously been housed in a residential building on the street for a long time, were also relocated to a new administration building. 

In the beginning, AMAZONE produced the EK single disc fertiliser spreaders in Forbach, as well as the "Tübings" from time to time. These were supports for the underground mine passages, which had been manufactured by the previous owners. The existing machine tools were initially used for this purpose. After some time, the AMAZONE product range was finally able fully to utilise the company's capacity and, in addition to fertiliser spreaders, tooth packer rollers were also manufactured from then on, the production of which was automated by AMAZONE. To round off the range, the "Groundkeeper" lawn mower and the self-propelled sprayer "Profihopper" were later added to the product portfolio. 

The first factory manager in Forbach was Mr Herweg, who moved to France from Germany with his family. This position was then held by Mr Schomäker, who had previously worked in Hude. He was followed by Mr Pfisterer and then Mr Franke. Today, Mr Descamps manages our business in Forbach - a native Frenchman from the agricultural machinery industry who is bilingual, owing to his many years of living in Germany, which benefits communication between the factories. Ludger Braunsmann joined the management team in Forbach as Managing Director for Finance and Controlling.

Currently with 100 employees, the first AMAZONE subsidiary has developed over the years into a very efficient plant for "groundcare".