Amazone shareholder and former CEO Dr Heinz Dreyer has died at the age of 90.
He joined the business on the death of his father, Heinrich Dreyer, in 1958 and remained central to the day-to-day management of Amazone until he was succeeded by his own son, Dr Justus Dreyer, in 2005. He continued, however, to be responsible for Amazone seeding systems.
Heinz Dreyer always demonstrated a strong commitment to research and product development at Amazone, and the development of agricultural machinery was a matter very close to his heart.
He was responsible for numerous pioneering inventions and patents. For example, he invented the first ZA three-point linkage mounted, twin-disc fertiliser spreader, which later became the forerunner to almost every other fertiliser spreader used around the world.
He set further milestones with the design of seed drills for larger working widths and invented the legendary Amazone D4 tractor-mounted seed drill, which enabled the company to become a market leader in this field as well.
Ahead of his time, he even turned his attention to the progressive method of direct seeding as early as 1975, and invented a ground-breaking chisel opener for this purpose.
As the third generation of the Dreyer family at Amazone, Heinz Dreyer played a major role in building up the company and developed it into a global agricultural machinery manufacturer. However, the continued independence of the owner-managed family business always remained at the centre of his considerations.
