The story
In 1959, Aksel Kyed and Kjeld W. Jensen started the company "Kyed and Werner Jensen", which at that time were involved in two different business areas, district heating and the fabrication of hydraulic digging equipment.
In 1960, the company was split, and Kjeld W. Jensen started Hydrema. Back then the headquarters were placed in Aalborg.
In 1962, the company moved to Støvring. At that time Hydrema had 15 workers and an area of 320 m2.
In 1971, a subsidiary was established in Norway, followed by Sweden in 1979, the former West Germany in 1981, England in 1985 and France in 1988. The United States, Australia, and Poland, are among the countries that import machines from the Hydrema factories in Denmark and from 1997 in Germany.
In 1980, Hydrema started producing their own machines from scratch. They started with the Hydrema 800-series, which were a new line of backhoe loaders produced fully in-house. Except for the engines, made by Perkins Engines in England (Today most machines are fitted with Cummins engines, though). Before 1980, Hydrema bought tractors from companies like Volvo, and mounted their own hydraulic equipment to the tractors.
In 1983, Hydrema started producing their own dump trucks and in a short period in the late 1980s, they also produced mobile building cranes.
In 1990, the Hydrema 800-series were replaced by the Hydrema 900-series, which had a new chassis and more powerful axles and digging arm (backhoe).
In 1996, Hydrema started the production of a new mine clearing vehicle, named the Hydrema MCV 910. It can safely clear big mine areas in a short amount of time.
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In 1997, Hydrema bought the Weimar-Werk Baumaschinen, and thereby acquired production facilities in Germany. In Støvring, the production and administration area is about 16.500 m2, while the facilities in Weimar are 20.000 m2.
In 1998, Hydrema launched their unique Hydrema MPV 900. It was a Multi Purpose Vehicle, which was able to switch tools, like a telescopic arm or a digging arm.
In 2004, Hydrema mine-clearing vehicle (MCV) was used by the Indian Army for 'proving' operations to clear personnel or anti-tank mines with up to 10 kg explosive weight.
In 2006, Hydrema expanded into the defence industry through a counter purchasing deal with the Swedish Hägglunds, which is a part of BAE Systems. Hydrema was to produce, mount and integrate 45 turrets for the Danish Army's new CV9035 Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hydrema, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5