A noted innovator in the machinery industry, Helmut Claas celebrates his 90th birthday this year. He was born in 1926 in Harsewinkel, Germany, the eldest of three children.

Between 1948 and 1954 he completed a degree in mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Hanover. This included a semester at the Technical University of Vienna and a year of agricultural studies in Paris. This was followed by further studies in the field at the University of Vienna and the Grande École Nationale d’Agriculture in Paris.

After finishing his studies, he took responsibility for the planning and establishment of a Claas distributorship in France, now trading as Claas France.

In 1958, Claas entered his parents’ family firm in Harsewinkel, Germany. In 1962 he was appointed director of the engineering department. In 1996, as part of the restructuring of the firm into a joint-stock company, he moved from the role of managing partner to be chair of both the supervisory board and the shareholders’ committee.

His special focus has always been on developing pioneering products and mass producing them economically. A whole series of innovations were initiated or co-created by Helmut Claas. For example, in 1970 the Dominator series of combines was developed based on a modular or platform construction concept.

This range became one of the most successful combine harvester models in Claas. Its successor model, the Lexion, was also developed in Helmut Claas’s era.

In 2003 he succeeded in taking an important step towards developing and securing the company’s future success through the takeover by Claas of the whole tractor division of Renault Agriculture. Claas tractor sales are growing steadily in Ireland.

In 2000 he received the honorary title Doctor of Agricultural Studies in “recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of agricultural engineering and his particular services in the development of high-performance, modern agricultural machines” from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim.

Today, his daughter Cathrina Claas-Mühlhäuser leads the corporate group as chair of the supervisory board

Claas invests in the digital future

Claas is investing in the digital future, and recently laid the foundation stone for a new electronics development centre in the town of Dissen, southern Lower Saxony.

“Information and communications technologies will play key roles in the future of Claas. We selected the location carefully, and are delighted that we can now proceed to the actual building phase,” explains Thomas Böck, responsible for technology and systems on the Claas Executive Board.

Claas is investing a seven-figure sum in the development of the roughly 5ha site, which is scheduled for completion in 2017.

Claas E-Systems was created in 2014, when Claas pooled its electronics expertise into a single subsidiary. Over 150 employees work there developing control units, electronics architectures, terminals, camera systems, automatic satellite-guided steering systems and many other solutions for an increasingly digital, networked agricultural sector. The staff at Claas E-Systems came from a variety of Claas subsidiaries in Gütersloh, Harsewinkel, Bad Saulgau, Paderborn and Denmark.

Claas involvement in electronics dates back to 1998 following its purchase of one of the leading agricultural software companies, and has integrated it successfully within the group.