Franz-Bernd Kruthaup began his career at GRIMME in the sales department in 1992 after completing degrees in Agricultural Machinery Technology and Business Administration. Since 2007, he has worked as managing director of the GRIMME Group companies, and in 2019 he was appointed director of the SHAKTIMAN-GRIMME joint venture.

Alongside the ongoing expansion of the sales network, he was immediately passionate about technological innovation. This applied not only to country-specific adaptations, but also to the development of entirely new technologies and machines.

His travels to over 70 countries around the world gave him valuable experience of many different aspects of potato cultivation and technology.

Following GRIMMEs acquisition of Spudnik in the US, the establishment of a plant in China and the formation of the SHAKTIMAN-GRIMME joint venture in India, Mr. Kruthaup looked after coordinating the rapidly growing product portfolio within the GRIMME Group.

He played a pivotal role in developing the SHAKTIMAN-GRIMME Potato machinery line, including the “RW 200 windrower”, which won an Innovation Silver-Medal at Agritechnica 2023 in Hannover.

Another key area of Mr. Kruthaup’s work for the GRIMME Group involves analyzing future trends in agronomy, the environment, society and politics in order to identify the potential impact of these trends on future machinery requirements as early as possible.

In terms of association involvement, he has been a member of the executive board of the Union of the German Potato Industry (UNIKA) since 2008 and serves on the Technical Committee.