Date:01/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/01/stories/2008100156911700.htm

Business

Leyland-John Deere venture for backhoes, four-wheel loaders

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: BIJOY GHOSH

DIVERSIFYING: (from left) Dheeraj G. Hinduja, Co-Chairman, R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, Samuel R. Allen, President, Worldwide Construction and Forestry Division, and Robert W. Lane, Chairman and CEO, John Deere, at the signing of MoU, in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland has initialled joint venture agreement with John Deere to make construction equipment.

It will be an equal joint venture and is expected to go on stream by early 2010. Initially, it will roll out backhoes and four-wheel loaders. Subsequently, the range will be expanded to include a full line of construction equipment. The products will be co-branded, bearing both Ashok Leyland and John Deere names.

The joint venture could provide jobs to 500 people in the first phase.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, R. Seshasayee, Managing Director of Ashok Leyland, said the financial and other project details of the joint venture were still being worked out. The two partners, he said, had short-listed a few locations. The Managing Director said the happenings in the global arena would impact the current boom marginally. Nevertheless, he was confident that the Indian economy would remain robust, what with the continuing focus on infrastructure.

Samuel R. Allen, President, Worldwide Construction and Forestry Division, John Deere, said India was an important market for his company. The 171-year-old company had been in the construction equipment field for over 50 years now. “This tie-up enhances John Deere’s growth of construction business outside North America.”