KUHN / Thierry Krier

Hello.

I come from an agricultural background, but since I was very small it was my passion — my life through my grandparents. I started with an agricultural school in Dijon, then went to a business school, before joining Kuhn in 1989, first as an intern in the United States, and then a thirty-year career: ten years in Saverne, and then twenty years in the United States for Kuhn, developing the American market. And over the past six years, I now have the honor of serving as president of the group.

As you obviously know, we are an old company, an old brand founded just next to Saverne, in Eckartswiller, 192 years ago today, with a long development history first based on sites in the Saverne region, and then since the mid-1980s, international expansion. Today, through various acquisitions of companies that were partly Kuhn competitors, we have eleven factories around the world, a little over ten distribution subsidiaries, more than 5,000 employees, and over one billion euros in revenue worldwide.

In a way, it could be considered a love story, Saverne and Kuhn. In our agricultural machinery sector, we are one of the major players, particularly in our specialty, agricultural equipment. Saverne and Kuhn — the whole world knows the association of the two names. It's Saverne and of course the Kuhn company. So Saverne is important to us: it's our roots, it's our history. The Saverne area started in 1828 with a forge in Eckartswiller, then an installation in Saverne on the historic site that is still today the group's headquarters, in 1864 if I recall correctly. Then considerable development on the historic site, and since the 1990s on the Monswiller-Steinbourg platform.

Most economic studies generally indicate that for one industrial job, there are roughly three to four related service jobs. So if we add it all up for the city of Saverne, which has about 12,000 inhabitants today, or the Saverne area which must be 30,000 to 35,000, Kuhn would represent 6,000, 8,000, perhaps 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. I think what's more important is not only the volume of jobs involved, but also their quality. If I were to list the job categories, there are probably dozens on the Saverne platform, of all kinds. Qualified workers for the vast majority, of course, a huge number of senior technicians — probably 200 to 300 — and perhaps 200 engineers as well, in production, R&D, testing, and product evaluation. We are rather proud at Kuhn to offer 2,000 quality jobs in the region.

The origin of Kuhn's development on the Monswiller platform dates back to the mid-1990s. We started from the observation that a factory in Saverne, near the town center, hemmed in by the hospital on one side, the national road on the other, and the railway — a site of over 20 hectares — was totally saturated in terms of buildings and capacity. And we were seeing a considerable increase in the size of agricultural machines in our sector, and the landlocked Saverne site could no longer meet that need. So in two phases, we developed a new industrial site on the Monswiller-Steinbourg platform: a first phase in '96 that led to the construction of the European spare parts platform, and then a second phase in 2008 with a second land purchase and the construction of the large machine assembly site, which is currently in a phase of expansion, and then this training center, the Kuhn exhibition center, the Center for Progress.

We have a public consultation procedure underway with the PTR of the Saverne region, in the hope of reaching a revision of the land use plan for the area. Regarding Kuhn, the acquisition of a roughly 30-hectare plot of land, located right next to our current industrial facilities. What's important to note is the situation of this forested area, which has its own history alongside our current site. You see today a modern industrial site. Being good neighbors is something important for us. But the starting point was completely different — it was actually a military wasteland, an abandoned mobilization center, a mined piece of land that we took over from the state domain in two phases, then cleared, demined, and developed. Today we've reached the limit of what we can do on the current site, so it was important for us to be right next to the existing factories. That's very important to us.

On the environmental side, we spent a lot of time with specialized firms and also with local authorities to determine the state of fauna and flora on the parcel in question. We have initial outlines of what the implementation would look like. We're talking about a forested point of about 34 hectares. At this stage, approximately 25 hectares would actually be developed. The rest would be preserved, with wooded strips around the perimeter of the site, and also a few corridors that would allow the wild fauna present to circulate on the parcel. All of this, of course, in the same spirit as what we've done on many other projects, especially here in Monswiller-Steinbourg, trying our best to integrate our buildings and our industrial footprint into the landscape.

Since our establishment here in '96, we've invested approximately 100 million euros on the Monswiller-Steinbourg platform and created about 200 jobs. On the new parcel, we envisage exactly the same level of development in terms of industrial use and investment — including an R&D center, an extension for the spare parts building, an assembly extension, and a welding and robotic machining workshop. We would also have a budget of approximately 100 million euros over five to six years, and the creation of 200 jobs.

Fundamentally, we are very happy to be here. The commitment of our employees is very important. There is a relationship of trust with local elected officials, with the community of communes. We offer quality jobs, as I mentioned earlier — at least that's our perception, but the environment reflects it back to us as well. And so we want to continue this adventure. Given the size of the products, it is very difficult to consider an industrial site anywhere other than in very close proximity. So today, our objective, thanks to the mobilization of local elected officials, is to invest again in Monswiller on a continuous basis, building on what we've already done. If that couldn't happen, which we would obviously regret, we would have to consider a completely different scenario, closer to the current geographic center of greater Europe — that is, much further east than Alsace.

Oh yes, absolutely. On this point, there is really no doubt. As I was saying, we strive to be good neighbors. As Kuhn, we try to stay well away from any political debate, but we have excellent relationships with all stakeholders. Yes, it's very clear, their support is unconditional. However, the project itself remains very complex, since we have a parcel that belongs to the state, to the public domain. Studies need to be carried out; it's a process that began nearly five years ago and will probably take another three or four years before we can, if all goes well, occupy the land and see the buildings we dream of today come to life.

Thank you, Mr. Gare.