Quality Equipment Expands Operation on Strength of Crop Market

Deere & Co. plans to boost its quarterly stock dividend 17% because company officials are confident in the farm equipment maker's prospects.

Deere & Co. expects equipment sales to be up 10 to 12% for fiscal 2011 and up about 34% for the first quarter compared with the same periods of the previous year.

Deere & Co., a farm equipment maker, renamed its business unit that offers credit and other financial services to John Deere Financial on Thursday.

Deere & Co.'s Waterloo Foundry update is not only good for the Cedar Valley, it's a great move for the company, according to an industry analyst who is considered an expert on the Moline, Ill.-based company.

According to Deere, the modernization work will take place over the next 4 to 5 years. The project will allow the heavy equipment maker to improve manufacturing capacity and flexibility.

About 90 professionals and staff members at Deere & Co.’s Southeast engineering center in Charlotte will relocate to Cary this fall. An unspecified number of positions will be eliminated. Employees affected by the downsizing will be offered employment in other Deere facilities around the country, a spokesman says.

Production cuts and the tightest inventories in the industry have led to a shortage of Deere rural lifestyle equipment.