Mr Tetsuji Tomita, Kubota vice-president, told this to a group of European journalists during a series of factory visits to Japan in recent weeks.

Kubota currently sees itself at close to AGCO in a world ranking sense and aims to leapfrog over AGCO and New Holland in the coming years to challenge John Deere.

Kubota will be cranking up their plans in the coming year, starting with the introduction of a range of higher power tractors, with ambitions to have tractors close to 200hp by 2015.

And while the company would not divulge whether these new bigger power engines would be home produced or produced as part of a joint venture, the company’s general manager Dr Iida was clear when he said that the Kubota strategy was one of ‘local production for local consumption’.

“We are looking at the possibility of producing products in Europe, but we would prefer our own development,” he said.

This clearly hinted at European tractor production, fuelling rumours that Kubota was going to take over an existing European tractor company.

The company confirmed that it was considering both options, either a merger or takeover or the option of establishing a European tractor production centre in its own right. They confirmed that they had spoken to many other European-based tractor producers in recent years.

This is no surprise as Kubota has bought out Kverneland in Norway, one of Europe’s leading farm machinery companies.

Since its takeover announcement in 2011, Kubota has invested in significant production improvements at Kverneland aimed at making the company more efficient and profitable.

The Kubota team confirmed that they would be offering some of the Kverneland machines in Kubota colours in 2014 where they were compatible with Kubota tractors. These machines would include balers and mowers.

Bigger tractors

Kubota is believed to be testing higher horsepower tractors across Europe as part of the move to a larger range for 2015.

The company would not confirm any details of the design or engine use, despite rumours that they will be using a ZF transmission.

Dr Iida did confirm that they would be offering a continuously variable transmission (CVT) system on these tractors. He also confirmed that these new bigger tractors would be fitted with ISOBUS compatible systems within two to three years to allow them to use the Kverneland and Vicon range of machines that are almost all fully ISOBUS compatible.

The company also confirmed that it was looking at all engine emission options. The current range is fitted with the diesel particulate filter system (DPF) which does not require the use of AdBlue.

Dr Iida confirmed that selective catalytic reduction (SCR) using AdBlue is being considered.

He would not confirm if the higher engine power was going to be achieved by developing a six cylinder engine or by getting more power from a four cylinder turbo-charged engine similar to the approach that AGCO Power (Sisu) offer with their latest generation engines.

KEY POINTS

Kubota will offer a new higher power tractor close to 200hp by 2015.

Kubota aims to sell 10,000 M Series tractors in Europe per annum by 2018.

The preference is ‘local production for local consumption’.

Kverneland machines will be available in the Kubota orange colours in many European markets in 2014 from Kubota dealers.

Kubota will supply European farmers with cost effective combine harvesters for between €50,000 and €60,000 for small to medium size farm use.

Kubota is the market leader in the Japanese market of 40,000 tractors.

Kubota revenue was the highest ever in 2012 at €9bn.

Kubota has produced four million tractors and 26 million engines since production started in 1960.

Kubota produced 71,000 tractors in 2012 and aims to produce 90,000 in 2013.

Kubota is the leading manufacturer of under 100hp diesel engines in the world and seventh overall in diesel engine production.

Kubota has three divisions – food, water and the environment, with the latter two providing pipes, pumps and treatment systems.

What’s different about Kubota

During our visit to Japan, we visited three Kubota factories. The impression one gets is of a huge manufacturing company that is very organised and efficient. The company also makes tractors for Mitsubishi and New Holland, which are only for sale on the Japanese market.

The three Kubota tractor factories we visited were at Osaka, Sakai and Tsukuba. The Tsukuba factory was the most impressive with a bank of 30 robots assembling engines. The robots install the crankshafts, pistons, connecting rods and set the piston rings on a range of different sized diesel engines, all without a human touch.

The assembly lines for tractors and engines are not very sophisticated. They are cleverly automated to ensure that the Japanese Kaizan manufacturing approach used by car companies such as Toyota ensures high quality and reliability of the end product.

What is different about the Kubota approach to Europe now compared with in the past?

Mr Tetsuji Tomita, Kubota vice-president, said: “In the past, we were a niche player, a big fish in a small pond, now we have become a world player, we must become a big fish in a big lake, and this brings new challenges to be a big player in Europe.”

Currently, 20% of Kubota production is outside Japan; in the US where small tractors, ride-on lawnmowers and UTVs are manufactured and in Germany where mini diggers are made.

Kubota aims to increase this to 30% and the acquisition of Kverneland will help that goal. And there could be more farm machinery or tractor company acquisitions on the way to achieving that goal.