MOSCOW — Deere & Company announced plans April 2 to significantly expand its presence in Russia.

Deere has signed an agreement with the Russian government to invest approximately $80 million in a central operations center, which includes a distribution, replacement parts and training facility in the Kaluga region, 38 miles southwest of Moscow.

“We believe this is one of the largest single investment projects of a non-Russian farm and forestry equipment manufacturer in Russia,” said Robert W. Lane, Deere & Company chairman and chief executive officer.

In its initial stage, the new 98-acre facility in the Kaluga region will accommodate a 322,000-square-foot replacement parts distribution center, a training facility for dealer personnel, including a product demonstration site, and a whole goods distribution facility.

The company expects the new center will be operational in 2010.

Connection

John Deere has a long history of agricultural and forestry equipment sales to Russia. In the late 1920s, the company sold a significant number of plows and its famous Waterloo Boy tractors in Russia. The forestry markets have been served in Russia for over 30 years.

In 2002, Deere opened a forestry sales branch in St. Petersburg and in 2003, the company established an agricultural sales branch office in Moscow. In 2005, Deere added a manufacturing and assembly facility for seeding equipment in Orenburg.