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Business View Oceania - October/November 2017
More than a century ago, two peo-
ple on opposite sides of the Atlantic
started on a journey that would end
in the creation of a huge business. In
1881, a German blacksmith from Ke-
lilberg called Paul Zill invented a new
kind of plough. Soon after realizing the
business potential of his invention, he
created a company called Otto Sauer
Achsenfabik or SAF. As one of the pio-
neers in the business of manufacturing
agricultural equipment, the company
grew over the years and also entered
the transport industry with the manu-
facture of axles and suspensions.
A few decades later in 1910, Gerrit
Den Besten of South Dakota estab-
lished the predecessor of the Holland
company, the Safety Release Clev-
is Company. His first invention was a
safety release hitch between plough
and horse. The ingenious idea would
eventually grow into a huge business.
Like SAF, Holland was constantly at
the leading edge of innovation. As new
SAF-Holland
A world leader in the manufacturing of
commercial transport products