In an upcoming ceremony on Friday, August 29, Jan-Hendrik Mohr, CEO of CLAAS Group, will return to a familiar plot of land in Omaha, Nebraska, to break ground on a new 44,800 square foot Research and Development Center that will add new jobs and support the local economy.
More than twenty-five years ago, Mohr had a different title and a different mission: To turn an empty field on the edge of the city into the future home of CLAAS in North America. Today, the campus looks much different with the sprawling corporate offices of CLAAS of America, an assembly plant that has produced 10,000 LEXION combines for American farmers, and the recently added CLAAS Training Academy. It is home to more than 250 employees. The new CLAAS Research and Development Center will overlook the rest of the campus, sitting on the southwest corner of the property.
After returning to Germany from his multi-year assignment in Omaha, Mohr worked hard to ensure that his investment in the American market would continue to flourish. Now, more than ever, the US and Canadian markets are critical to the success of the family-owned, global ag equipment company.
CLAAS is fully dedicated to building ag equipment that enables North American farmers to be the best in their fields – and that includes the corn and soybean fields of the Midwestern US, the wheat and canola fields of the northern plains and western Canada, the rice fields in the Mississippi River Delta and beyond. As CLAAS develops next-generation technology for future machines, the company needs advanced R&D Center in Omaha to ensure its prototypes meet the demands of North American farmers and the fields they farm.