AGRICULTURAL machinery manufacturer Vicon is celebrating 100 years of production this year.

In 1910, Dutch founder Hermanus Vissers started an agricultural contracting business in Haarlemmermeer, a province in the north of Holland.

It is believed Hermanus' first machine was a horse-drawn, semi-automatic potato planter.

He soon developed a mowing bar, finger-wheel rake and pendulum-type fertiliser spreader which the Vicon brand is still renowned for today.

During the 1950s, Hermanus' son, Herbert, expanded the company to new markets, including North America.

The 1960s then saw the successful development of a new sugar beet harvester.

Vicon extended its product range around this time with a spading machine, an innovative alternative for ploughing.

Later that decade, the Vicon rotary mower was introduced as an important extension to the company's hay and grass harvesting line-up.

In the early 1980s, Thyssen Bornemisza, a large industrial group, looked at the agricultural industry as a growth market and acquired full ownership of Vicon.

This meant funds became available to extend the crop care product range even further, leading to the acquisition of Belgian sprayer specialist Allaeys, which laid the foundations for the Vicon sprayer range.

The forage harvesting product range was strengthened by the take-over of French baler specialist Rivierre Casalis and, in Canada,

Vicon purchased two manufacturers of cultivators, field sprayers, round balers and power take off-driven combine harvesters to serve the North American wheat belt areas.

A period of consolidation saw Thyssen Bornemisza bring its Vicon, Zweegers, Rivierre Casalis and Deutz-Fahr implement companies together in one organisation, called Greenland.

This newly re-organised company adopted the single and strongest brand name - Vicon.

In 1998, the Norwegian Kverneland Group acquired Greenland.

By 2008, the Kverneland Group had simplified its brand strategy to concentrate on its two strongest identities - Vicon and Kverneland.

Production of Vicon fertiliser spreaders and sprayers remained in Nieuw-Vennep, in the Netherlands, while manufacturing of Vicon disc mowers, rakes and tedders moved to Kerteminde in Denmark.

A facility in Soest, Germany, now produces the seed drills and seeding combinations, while the Modena plant in Italy builds power harrows and rotary tillers.

A fifth plant in Les Landes-Genusson, France, makes disc and tine cultivators.