February 1, 2023
Kverneland AS (Head Office: Klepp, Kingdom of Norway; President and CEO: Yasukazu Kamada; hereinafter “Kverneland”), a subsidiary of Kubota Corporation (Head Office: Naniwa-ku, Osaka, Japan; President and Representative Director: Yuichi Kitao; hereinafter, “Kubota”), has decided to acquire B.C. TECHNIQUE AGRO-ORGANIQUE SAS (Head Office: Arcy-sur-Cure, France; President and CEO: Mathias Bounon; hereinafter, “BCT”) as a wholly owned subsidiary. BCT is a company that manufactures agricultural machine equipment known as implements.
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BCT Inter-Row Cultivator mounted on a Kubota tractor
1. Background and Objectives
- Europe is driving forward legislation that aims to reduce its environmental impact and foster sustainable growth. Some of these policies set targets that advocate a 50% reduction in the use of chemical pesticides by 2030, which also advance legal reforms prohibiting the use of some herbicides. Moreover, cultivation methods considering the ecosystem as well as organic cultivation are rapidly becoming commonplace in light of a higher health consciousness in consumer foods. That is why Kubota expects demand for implements that can mechanically work topsoil without using any chemical herbicides to grow in the future.
- BCT is a company that manufactures and sells weeding implements for agricultural machinery under the "Phenix" brand. These implements incorporate state-of-the-art functionality, such as guidance features that automatically control the position of the implement using high-resolutions cameras, while also realizing fast and accurate work. BCT is highly regarded for these reasons, especially in France.
- Today, the Kubota Group has brought together a broad lineup of implements for upland farming from plowing and sowing to fertilization. In addition to adding weeding implements for agricultural machines to this product lineup, the acquisition of BCT as a wholly owned subsidiary will facilitate proposals better addressing customer needs.
- Kubota will promote greater use of weeding implements for agricultural machines in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural chemicals, while also proposing effective agricultural approaches using various implements.
2. BCT Overview
| Corporate name | B.C. TECHNIQUE AGRO-ORGANIQUE SAS |
|---|---|
| Business | Manufacture and sale of weeding implements for agricultural machines |
| Established | 2009 |
| Head office | Arcy-sur-Cure, France |
| President and CEO | Mathias Bounon |
Reference
Kverneland AS Overview
| Business | Manufacture and sale of implements |
|---|---|
| Established | 1879 (acquired as subsidiary in 2012) |
| Head office | Klepp, Kingdom of Norway |
| President and CEO | Yasukazu Kamada |
