Richiger
S.A. is located in the town of Sunchales, Province of
Santa Fe, Argentina, about 500 kilometers North of Buenos
Aires, the country’s capital city.
In
this prime farmland area, the Richiger company manufactures
some of the best farm machinery made in Argentina. The
company’s beginnings date back to 1921, when a
Swiss immigrant from the Neüchatel region named
Adolfo Richiger settled down in Sunchales and opened
a carpentry and ironworks shop which very soon flourished,
grew to employ about one hundred workers, and acquired
widespread reputation because of the quality of its
products. In 1959 the modern day company was founded,
and today its directors Gabriel and Gerardo Richiger,
great-grandsons of its founder, are committed to upholding
the standards of quality and innovation set forth by
the company since its beginnings.
Argentina is a country with a rich tradition in agricultural
and livestock production, and in the manufacture of
the machinery crucial to succeeding in these activities.
A good example of this is that the first patented self-propelled
combine harvester in the world was designed and built
in Argentina in 1929, precisely in Sunchales, by the
Rotania metalworks factory. As an interesting footnote,
the sheds where the Rotania company assembled its first
machines were recently acquired by Richiger S.A. and
are now used as a materials storehouse. Even the Claas
Group , its Argentine headquarters also
located in Sunchales, contributed its expertise to restore
the original combine harvester model, which now has
its own museum (see
story here).
This very same enterprising spirit is embodied in the
Flexi-Grain Storage system, now available
in the U.S.A, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand. |