John Deere has maintained its position as the UK’s leading tractor brand.

Holding just over a quarter of the market for 2006*, the company has hung on to pole position in the sales league for almost ten years.

Following closely on the green giant’s heels, New Holland has regained second place after losing it to Massey Ferguson in 2005. MF slips back to third with just a slight loss in market share.

Overall sales were up so most manufacturers had a good run of things with just McCormick (in fourth place), Valtra (8th=) and JCB (11th) seeing a fall in total volumes.

Claas upped the ante, selling over 150 more tractors than the previous year and giving it a healthy 5% slice of the cake.

Two new players joined the league in 2006. SDF – which owns the Same, Lamborghini, Deutz-Fahr and Hurlimann brands – clocked just over 4% of the market. Kubota entered the chart in a respectable eighth position – helped along by its success in the compact tractor market. 

*You’ll note that the figures relate to 2006 tractor sales. Annoyingly, a European Commission ruling dictates that market share data is published one year in arrears.

The Commission argues that this ensures the best possible deals for machinery buyers because competing firms do not have access to up-to-date market share information and area therefore unable to fix or inflate prices accordingly.

Source: AEA. Data includes compact tractors (less than 40hp) and agricultural tractors (40hp+).