From Italy to the whole of Europe

Agri Euro started out as a bricks-and-mortar store in Italy in the 1970s. Today, the e-commerce specialist for agricultural and gardening machinery is active throughout Europe.

From being the national industry leader, the company Agri Euro S.r.l., which sells agricultural and gardening machinery online, has set itself the goal of becoming the industry leader in Europe. What originally began in the 1970s as a retail store in the Italian town of Spoleto under Manilo Settimi has now, under the management of his children Filippo, Alessia and Alessandra, developed into a specialized online platform for agricultural equipment and gardening technology for B2C. For more than ten years, the company has been active in the most important European countries – in addition to the domestic market of Italy, these are currently France, Germany/Austria and Spain – and offers over 15,000 products under five domains (.com in Italian; .fr in French; .de in German; .es in Spanish; .co.uk in English). The main players at Agri Euro are proud to be the first company to have opened up e-commerce to a segment that was previously thought unsuitable due to the sheer size of the products.

The turning point in the history of the family business was the advent of the first online marketplaces. When he bought a photocopier on Ebay.it, Filippo Settimi, CEO of Agri Euro, realized the potential of e-commerce and wanted to use these opportunities and distribution channels for his own company in the future. No sooner said than done: from 2007, the products were also offered online. One year later, Agri Euro was officially founded. In the same year, the website agrieuro.com was launched and after just a few months, online sales exceeded those of the stationary business. Since 2017, Agri Euro has claimed to be the market leader in Italy in online trade for agricultural and horticultural machinery.

Today, Agri Euro has four outsourced logistics locations (Bologna, Novara, Piacenza and Bastia Umbra) and one directly managed location in Spoleto, with a total of 68,000 m² of covered storage space and a total of 56,000 pallets of goods in stock. Exports to European countries account for more than half of the turnover: in 2022, the share of exports was 56 percent, and since 2023, this figure has remained stable at 50 percent.

The company has identified Germany as a particularly important market – Agri Euro attributes a leading role in the business to the Federal Republic, which is not least due to the exponential development in the entire e-commerce sector as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. While the German market's share of total sales in 2021 was still 22 percent, it had already reached around 29 percent by the second quarter of 2022. “In 2021, sales in Germany doubled compared to the previous year and continue to grow today. In recent years, we have also expanded the product catalog available on agrieuro.de and now offer German customers almost the same variety of products and brands as on agrieuro.com,” reports Irina Danninger, coordinator of the Germany department. In addition, the average shopping cart of the German customer is larger than in the other countries – and the trend is rising. “This is mainly due to the fact that larger products with a higher economic value, such as tractors, chippers or mulchers, are often purchased,” says Danninger.

The e-commerce specialists see the consistency in sales growth over the past few years as confirmation of their strategy for increasing brand awareness and trust in Germany. The company has taken various measures, such as the German domain, native-speaking employees for customer contact and the acceptance of the most common means of payment.

But Agri Euro has also steadily expanded its portfolio of services across national borders. In 2022, the company launched its partner workshop program. Even before that, it had its own customer service with a repair workshop that guaranteed a quick return to the customer within four to five days. To become even faster and more sustainable, the dealer has joined forces with national and international partners to be able to offer customers a service close by. The workshops receive the spare parts directly from Agri Euro, which stocks more than 60,000 parts.

Since mid-2024, Agri Euro has been offering its premium customers a free 30-day return service, including pick-up. The “AgriEuro Professional” program, on the other hand, is aimed specifically at professionals, offering discounts of 2 to 20 percent for corporate customers; all that is required is registration. According to the company, further advantages of the pro account include the automated billing system and simplified purchase management.

Agri Euro is also currently expanding its headquarters. The logistics area is being rethought and integrated into the existing warehouse. The expansion was designed around the after-sales processes: starting next year, repair and maintenance work, spare parts management, and loading and unloading activities will be centrally and automatically regulated there over 2,500 m² (26,900 ft²). The company emphasizes that all Industry 4.0 standards will be met: an auto store system, mainly for the management of small spare parts, and a modular warehouse automation system from ONO Lean Logistics for larger spare parts and machines awaiting repair, should further increase the efficiency of the after-sales services offered.