The family Paintner from left: Marianne, Hermann, Christiane und Bernhard Paintner; forward Marietheres und Philipp

Founded in 1972 by Hermann Paintner, the founder of the ROPA Fahrzeug- und Maschinenbau GmbH developed and built the first selfpropelled beet harvester. Since then, the family business has developed into the leading specialists in machinery for harvesting, cleaning and loading of sugar beet.

Not only in Germany ROPA is the leading manufacturer of maschinery for sugar beet harvest, cleaning and loading, but also in Europe and worldwide.

For ROPA the objective is for all developments: "We want to meet the demands of future economic sugar beet farmers and entrepreneurs". At the headquarters of ROPA are more than 250 employees. With all colleagues in the subsidiaries, the team has a total of over 380 employees. ROPA is active worldwide. Own subsidiaries as a direct sales and service centres with ample spare parts were founded in 2000 in France, 2003 in Ukraine, in 2005 in Russia, 2006 in Poland and in 2008 in Kazan, Russia.

Experience for practice
As before, the family Paintner worked on their own farm in Sittelsdorf. On about 200 ha they cultivate sugar beet, wheat, potatoes and oilseed rape. Since 2004, Herrmann Paintner also managed an agricultural business in Ukraine. In the south of Kiev grow on around 1000 ha of leased land sugar beet and cereals. Our own farm has decisive advantages for ROPA. The employees have therefore a direct reference to the practice and understand the needs and requirements of machine operators better. All developments will be matched to the practical requirements and reviewed simultaneously on the suitability for daily use. Also the land in Ukraine is serving for their own experimentation. New and further developments can reviewed on the large fields in detail before bringing onto the market. Also in Ukraine they make own attempts to the plant production and plant protection.