Topcon Establishes Global Agriculture Group
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Topcon Establishes Global Agriculture Group

Topcon Positioning Group has announced the formation of the Topcon Agriculture Group. This new global organisation will further incorporate its precision agriculture business with recently acquired companies to create new connected field and farm management solutions for aftermarket and OEM customers. The global headquarters of the new group is located in Turin, Italy, with regional North American headquarters in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, U.S. and regional APAC headquarters in Adelaide, Australia.

With the recent acquisitions of Wachendorff Elektronik, Digi-Star, RDS Technology and NORAC Topcon now have the most extensive offering of field and farm management solutions in the industry, said Ray O’Connor, president and CEO of Topcon Positioning Group (TPG). The company will continue a strong focus on traditional field applications, but now also has the sensors and software to provide comprehensive planning, process control, workflow monitoring and extensive reporting that will bring their customers the full advantages of connected farming with immediate positive effect on their productivity.

Telematics

The new global headquarters in Turin, Italy, is also a result of this added emphasis on connected farming. Topcon’s telematics division – Tierra Telematics Design – has been located in Turin since 2008 and has had great success in both the construction and agricultural markets, particularly with important OEM clients, said Ivan Di Federico, TPG chief strategy officer and now also chairman of Topcon Agriculture. It is the objective to bring IoT (Internet of Things) solutions into the ag business that will link all the mechanics of farming to provide a workflow automation framework necessary to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture, he added.

Integration of technologies

Fabio Isaia, the former Tierra CEO will now become CEO of Topcon Agriculture. The new ag paradigm is moving towards the integration of different technologies to collect data from heterogeneous sources, which is exactly where Topcon sees the business going, Isaia said. Similar to other sectors, the mission will be to mine ‘big data’ to find information that will help customers to ‘harvest’ knowledge and make educated decisions to improve their workflows and business, with valuable ROI. Furthermore, Topcon Agriculture plans to create an eco-system that will allow customers and their partners to integrate seamlessly any data source and data model.

Recent acquisitions

Wachendorff Elektronik, a recognised global leader in the design and manufacturing of in-cab display for off-highway equipment located in Geisenheim, Germany, will expand its capabilities and become the primary manufacturing location for the entire Agriculture Group. 

Albert Zahalka, who has been president of Topcon Precision Agriculture since 2010 and is now also COO of Topcon Agriculture, said, Digi-Star has been a great addition to the company, and now as regional headquarters, will continue to supply its leading weighing, feed and farm management solutions, along with centralised sales and support for  distributors and OEM partners. He said they are very excited to have their North American regional headquarters located in its agricultural heartland.

NORAC Systems, with its best-in-class boom height control systems, Zahalka said, and the intelligent measurement systems produced by RDS Technology will continue to mainly provide core technologies and solutions to the global OEM markets.

Isaia added that together with Wachendorff, Digi-Star, NORAC and RDS, they can count on a vast and comprehensive products portfolio that will become smartly connected to the new Topcon Agriculture eco-system, to source information that’s the core of all augmented agricultural services they will offer to the customers.

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