Agritechnica Opens the Door to Europe for Butler Machinery

Fargo-based Butler Machinery provides machinery and services to the construction, agriculture, mining, landscaping, power generation and trucking sectors. Butler represents manufacturers including AGCO, Caterpillar, Drago, Horsch, Killbros, Balzer, Sullair, Metso, Mesaba, and Trail King. With its large inventory of equipment and wide range of services and experience, Butler Machinery was seeking new avenues to expand globally, so in May 2013, the Butler team met with CS North Dakota Office Director Heather Ranck to discuss expansion strategies. The Butler staff decided to take a mini booth within the USA Pavilion at Agritechnica 2013. Agritechnica is the world’s largest ag machinery show held every 2 years in Hanover, Germany, with over 450,000 visitors from 47 countries. During the show, Butler’s staff connected with a contact from Ireland, and that company ended up ordering a significant amount of parts from Butler in the months following Agritechnica.

“Our participation in the USA Pavilion was an excellent first step to expose our business to customers outside of North America,” said Dusty Schulz, Used Ag Equipment Manager at Butler. “Without the USA Pavilion, we wouldn’t have developed several relationships that had an immediate impact to our business.  It was definitely worth the investment, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with international business.” 

The USA Pavilion is an area within the Agritechnica show grounds that is managed by the U.S. Commercial Service, where companies can rent booth space of varying sizes and receive assistance for logistics (hotel, transportation, booth set-up, internet connectivity, etc.), hospitality (food and drink are catered within the USA Pavilion, and businesses’ contacts are invited to a reception), business matchmaking support (electronic and print outreach to potential business partners from around the world, along with access to private business meeting rooms and common seating areas within the Pavilion; and in-person show floor export counseling support from U.S. Commercial Service staff). 

For more information on Butler Machinery, visit their website at https://www.butlermachinery.com/ and for information on the U.S. Commercial Service, call (701) 239-5080, or visit www.export.gov/northdakota.