Gottfried Pessl, CEO and founder of Pessl Instruments, about the company profile and the key services on company's 39th birthday

The journey of Pessl Instruments GmbH and ag-IoT industry

Pessl Instruments is celebrating its 39th birthday!

Since its founding in 1984, Pessl Instruments became a leading manufacturer and developer in smart technology agriculture on all continents. A complete range of wireless, solar-powered monitoring systems underMETOS® brand and app FieldClimate, which was born in 2005 as the first-ever web platform for collecting and displaying agro-meteorological data, became an indispensable partner of every farmer who uses them.

39-anniversary-cover-photo

On this special day we are sharing some thoughts of our CEO and Founder, Mr. Gottfried Pessl.

“Pessl Instruments has been serving growers, researchers and managers in 85 countries for more than 39 years. We help them with customizable precision agriculture hardware and software solutions which cover all needs, pain points and challenges that boots on the ground face in their everyday work and we are proud to make the burden of decision making a bit lighter,”

begins explaining Mr. Pessl.

“The combination of our hardware and software solutions offer an extensive tool set that can be used for weather monitoring and weather forecast, irrigation management, crop & plant disease prediction and prevention, insect monitoring, remote field monitoring, work planning, nutrition management, and much more.

The cutting edge technology and intuitive user interface of FieldClimate make daily decision-making easier and efficient. This way farmer can grow quality crops in a sustainable manner.

A simple idea that grew into a leading Smart-Ag Tech brand

“The importance of precision agriculture wasn’t as obvious 39 years ago as it is today, but I early recognized technology and real time weather information as an inevitable part of future farming. This led me to create our first device under the METOS® brand – Electronic Disease Predictor for Apple Scab. Since then, the company has been working intensively on the development of high-performance technologies for precision agriculture that help optimize processes throughout the farming sector and beyond.”

Pessl Instruments headquarters building
Pessl Instruments headquarters in Weiz

Coming from a farming family background who studied agronomy and later export business I wanted to do something which combines farming and business. In my first seven years as a banker I understood time means money and when it comes to farming, executing field activities at the right time at the right place separates you from a profitable, successful growing season from a potential huge economic loss. This drove me throughout the Pessl-METOS journey – how can we help farmers save time, save resources yet make the activities profitable – all at the same time? The power of IoT technology I recognized 20 years back and it took one more decade in order for my ideas to come to life,

clarifies Mr. Pessl.

Pesll Instruments_first weather station
First weather station from Pessl Instruments
“Our goal is to remain and further reinforce our position as a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of innovative smart-ag tech hardware and software solutions that are designed to improve farmer’s productivity and profitability. We strongly believe that METOS® technology will drive a positive change in agriculture, ensuring that all individual farmers’ needs are met. Our goal is to be the trusted partner of other industry players, distributors, and farmers as well.”
Mr. Pessl added.

Overcoming the challenges of the last two years

The last two, three years have undoubtedly been challenging. Bumpy supply chains, limited possibilities to do business in person and rising material prices have put our resilience to the test, but C19 has also given us a new and valuable perspective on how the world is running right now. Once again it showed that when you stand together, you grow together. The major factor helping us come out of the pandemic stronger than ever is the extensive network of subsidiaries, affiliates, trusted distributors and renowned industry partners we built over the years. And we appreciate each and everyone standing by our side going forward.”

A significant role is also the thought of sustainability which is one of our keystones when it comes to the development of new METOS® products and solutions for the agriculture sector. With the European Green Deal, we are even more determined to continue in the direction we set out at the very beginning of the establishment – to help the farmers achieve the best yield, without compromising the environment.

“The last three years have shown how important digital technologies are for farmers as in that period many learned for the first time how useful e-learning and webinars were for the first time in their life.

Company’s go-to-market strategy and industry verticals focuses

“Our go-to market strategy always comes from the consumer and the whole farming industry – so researching, identifying and addressing the most pressing needs is always the first priority. Since we follow the needs of the market, intertwining various industry verticals is a must and an extensive team of experts helps to make this possible.

“Bottom line – we are focusing on what’s needed – from remote field monitoring, to plant disease modeling, insect monitoring, yield prediction, irrigation management, work automation, and more.
One more important road is the more HAAS/SAAS models will be applied so the hardware is still important but more as enabler and ground truth to have highly efficient software and AI applications which are paid as a subscriptions service.”

The most significant changes in the IoT space and views on the global IoT industry

Absolutely. The worldwide IoT industry is rapidly transforming the way we interact and react to what’s happening around us. It enables companies to improve operational efficiency, increase and strengthen customer engagement, reduce costs and resource use, better understand the industry trends, processes, and customer needs. There isn’t a thing that it can’t help optimize. The world had never been so interconnected, efficient and responsive as it is today. The continuous trend for full roboterization of machines and implements will make it necessary to have EVERY field connected with IOT`s to make robots work intelligently. 

I believe that its impact is even more so visible in the agricultural sector where the IoTs can be used to make more informed decisions about crop production, irrigation, pest control, and spraying. It provides the opportunity to identify problems timely in real time without visiting the field. It even provides higher accuracy than physical visits. The IoT technologies will help us mitigate the climate change crisis, safeguard the food supply chain and protect biodiversity.

said Mr. Pessl.

About the significance of teamwork and healthy work culture at Pessl Instruments GmbH

“Even the greatest idea cannot be executed without the help of others. We strongly believe that our success is largely dependent on our team members working together, so we do our best fostering a supportive, productive environment, encouraging people to share their ideas with other members. Open communication and collaboration between local and global team members is also of great importance if we want to be successful at offering solutions that are applicable all over the globe.

explained Mr. Pessl.

“Last but not least, being a part of the Pessl-METOS® family means helping reshape the future of farming processes, improve food safety and contribute to a better tomorrow – and this is something that our employees highly value.
Pessl Instruments has an inclusive work ethic with people working together from more than 50 countries and we believe if the world would do the same we could have a much better world without wars and political tensions.
added Mr. Pessl.

Future plans of Pessl Instruments

The future plans always revolve around about what kind of an impact their next step will make – What the environment craves, what the farmer needs, and what we all, as a humanity, have to do for a better tomorrow. Sustainability and risk management for farmers are the key points. Not only for our current wellbeing, but for the wellbeing of the future generations as well.

One of the primary goals of to company is to expand the production worldwide – currently the company is producing in Europe, North America and is working on setting up a production factory in Brazil and another one in China.

A piece of advice to the aspiring business leaders in the same domain

“My first advice is to stay up to date on the latest technology and trends in the industry. The IoT technology didn’t just make everything run smoother, but also faster. Even when you make a breakthrough, you cannot just sit back and rest on your laurels – you have to move forward at all times to preserve the competitive edge.

Secondly, focus on building strong and genuine relationships with everyone you come across – from your coworkers, to suppliers, partners, consumers. 

Thirdly, think out of the box and don’t be afraid to take risks – fortune favors the brave.
concluded Mr. Pessl.
Meet the team - Gottfried Pessl