Deere spokesperson says restructuring will help company meet challenges

QUAD CITIES — John Deere recently reported third-quarter sales fell 11 percent from May through July.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Hartmann says Deere is restructuring, and the changes will help it weather this year’s challenges.  She says they are flattening the organization to be sure they can make decisions more quickly and have offered some voluntary early retirement programs to salaried employees. Hartmann says the layoffs in production workers they’ve made recently are based entirely on market demand.    

Hartmann says sales of Deere Agriculture and Turf Equipment declined five percent in the third quarter. But industry figures show many farmers are still in a buying mood when it comes to technology. “What this tells us is that customers are willing to invest in technology in addition to their equipment in the face of uncertain market conditions,” Hartmann says.

Damage from this month’s severe windstorm may affect the bottom line for farmers in the Midwest. “Iowa’s corn crop certainly took the brunt of the impact — and it’s been devastating to so those farmers hit hardest,” Hartmann says, “And yet — as we often see — farmers tend to be the most resilient population of individuals that you will ever come across.  I think that comes with that nature of the business and the food that needs to be produced   that they are able to provide.”

Deere has also raised its forecast for full year net income to nearly two-point-three billion dollars. That’s higher than the second quarter forecast but lower than its original projection for the year.