Over the course of the next five years, a multimillion pound project will see the complete redevelopment of the existing Claas and MANNS site in Saxham Business Park near Bury St Edmunds. Within this will be the construction of a new, signature headquarters that reflects the importance of Claas within the both UK and Ireland’s agricultural industry.

“By giving the go-ahead for this new building, both the Claas Group and the Claas family have shown their commitment to both Claas in the UK, and also to West Suffolk, where we are now one of the largest employers,” says Trevor Tyrrell, CEO of Claas UK.

Founded over 100 years ago and still privately owned by the Claas family, the Claas Group is one of the largest private agricultural machinery manufacturers in the world. Based in west Germany, the company operates 14 manufacturing plants around the globe and employs more than 11,300 people.

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The history of Claas and Saxham goes back to the 1930s when local farmer Bill Mann started importing Claas combines from Germany. The MANNS company moved to the site at Saxham during the 1950s and the current headquarters building has been a landmark alongside the A14 for many years. It was constructed in the 1960s and has been extended since then.

Today, Claas UK employs more than 400 people throughout the UK and Ireland, is the market leader for both combine harvesters and self-propelled forage harvesters, and has a rapidly growing customer base for Claas tractors.

“When the current building was constructed, they would never have imagined that 50 years later we would now have over 100 people working on site and that as the headquarters for Claas UK, it would be providing sales, service, parts and training support to dealerships throughout the UK and Ireland, in addition to receiving visitors from around the world,” Tyrrell says. “The site is at maximum capacity.”

The site is also the headquarters for the MANNS dealer group, with six dealerships throughout the eastern counties. In addition, the Claas Academy training centre is located on the site, which provides over 4,000 training days for dealer personnel and customers every year.

The redevelopment of the site will take place in phases, the first of which is to relocate the Claas Academy to a separate building on-site, which has already started. The next phase is planned to commence midsummer next year and will see the construction of new office space and the MANNS dealership.