AGCO CEO Eric Hansotia highlighted the company's commitment to growing its precision business despite market challenges in 2024 during a Nov. 1 earnings call. He also discussed the launch of PTx Trimble and the OutRun retrofit autonomy kit as AGCO aims for full autonomy by 2030.
"The rebuilding of the PTx Trimble dealer network remains a top priority for us," Hansotia said during the call. "Over the past several months, hundreds of dealers have signed distribution contracts directly with PTx Trimble to continue serving their customers with the innovative products they are seeking. Although sales and margins for PTx Trimble have been lower than we expected this year, given the rapid decline in our industry, we are energized to continue integrating, innovating, and growing the PTx portfolio of products and services. Leveraging the strength of the PTx Trimble portfolio along with a farmer-first mindset and award-winning products from Precision Planting and our equipment brands, we are poised to reach new heights. I want to reiterate that AGCO's unique retrofit strategy allows us to offer an industry-leading suite of advanced technology solutions for farmers around the world looking to save on inputs or increase yields, regardless of their brand of equipment. This is especially impactful in a year when farm income is down, and we can help farmers with new technology at a lower price than a brand new piece of equipment.
"Despite the current down cycle of the agricultural industry, AGCO is well positioned to capitalize on the long-term growth in our sector. Farmers are being asked to produce more crops with fewer acres as the world's population grows and food security becomes increasingly more important. We have also taken decisive steps to focus our product portfolio on precision ag technology with the PTx Trimble joint venture and Precision Planting, complemented by an industry-leading machinery that is the best in AGCO's history. While commodity prices are down compared to the recent past, the cost of farm inputs have also come down, though not to the same degree. With AGCO's tech stack, farmers can further reduce their expenses with precise application of fertilizer, seeds, and by leveraging data analytics with our tools. AGCO's mixed fleet retrofit solutions typically offer a one to two-year payback and are available at a significantly lower cost compared to buying a new machine.
"On the technology front, we officially launched the OutRun retrofit autonomy kit, available through PTx Trimble. OutRun is the first commercially available autonomous retrofit grain cart solution in the market, and the latest offering that demonstrates our commitment to retrofit first and mixed fleets. The autonomous grain cart allows a single combine driver to operate two pieces of machinery simultaneously. The combine driver can stage the autonomous tractor on the field, call the tractor so it can pull alongside the combine and receive the grain on the go, and finally send the tractor to an unload zone, all without requiring a driver in the tractor cab. The OutRun hardware is available initially on two tractor brands with more to follow. This kit will be the backbone of AGCO's system to allow fully autonomous solutions across the crop cycle by 2030. This is just the first step of many. As we showed at our technology days earlier this year, we are already working on the next phase where the combine can operate two grain carts simultaneously. As more phases of the crop cycle are automated, the same OutRun hardware can be used, which allows for a simple unlock from a farmer standpoint. This product will also bring AGCO a recurring revenue stream where farmers will be billed for every active task hour where the tractor is running in autonomous mode. Farmers can purchase hours a few different ways. Pay-as-you-go, Hourly Bundle, or Unlimited. We're very excited about this launch and helping farmers drive increased efficiency during one of their most critical points in the season."
