![Ursus5044 DSC01726](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Ursus5044_DSC01726.JPG)
Ursus SA (often stylized URSUS SA) is a Polish
agricultural machinery
Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that the ...
manufacturer, headquartered in
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. The company was founded in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
in 1893, and has strong historic roots regarding Polish
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
production history. It has also carried out some production of
trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es in a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
with the Ukrainian manufacturer
Bogdan
Bogdan or Bohdan (Cyrillic: Богдан) is a Slavic masculine name that appears in all Slavic countries as well as Romania and Moldova. It is derived from the Slavic words '' Bog/Boh'' (Cyrillic: Бог), meaning "god", and ''dan'' (Cyrillic: ...
, and manufactures
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
es,
coaches
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Coac ...
, and
trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es in a joint venture with
AMZ Kutno
AMZ Kutno is an automotive company based in Kutno, Poland, that has been operating since 1999. It specializes in the design and manufacture of special bodies for commercial vehicles, such as minibuses, ambulances, security vans and special vehicle ...
under the name
Ursus Bus
Ursus Bus is a Polish bus, coach, trolleybus manufacturer based in Lublin, Poland. The company was founded in 2015 by URSUS S.A. and AMZ-KUTNO S.A.
Products
Current electric models
* Ursus Ekovolt - low-floor 12m electric city bus
* Ursus ...
.
History
Early history
![Ursus tractor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Ursus_tractor.jpg)
The Ursus Factory was founded in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
in 1893 on 15 Sienna Street, Warsaw, by three engineers and four businessmen. It began producing exhaust engines and then later trucks and metal fittings intended for the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
.
In 1930, the Ursus factory fell on hard times due to the world financial crisis and was nationalised under the
Państwowe Zakłady Inżynieryjne (National Engineering Works, PZInż), the Polish manufacturer of arms and vehicles. It then began producing military tractors, tanks and other heavy machinery for troops. During the German occupation of Poland in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
the factory was controlled by
FAMO
FAMO, short for Fahrzeug- und Motoren-Werke (''Automobile and Engine Works'') was a German vehicle manufacturer in the early 20th century.
Products
*Sd.Kfz. 9: Heavy half-track used by German forces in World War II; some were also produced by Vo ...
and produced
Panzer II
The Panzer II is the common name used for a family of German tanks used in World War II. The official German designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen'' II (abbreviated PzKpfw II).
Although the vehicle had originally been designed as a stopgap while la ...
,
Marder II
The ''Marder'' II ("marten" in English) was a German tank destroyer of World War II based on the Panzer II chassis. There were two versions, the first mounted a modified Soviet 7.62 cm gun firing German ammunition, while the other mounted th ...
and
Wespe
The Sd.Kfz. 124 ''Wespe'' (German for "wasp"), also known as ''Leichte Feldhaubitze 18/2 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II (Sf.)'' ("Light field howitzer 18 on Panzer II chassis (self-propelled)"), is a German self-propelled gun developed and ...
AFVs. After the war, the Ursus Factory started producing the
Ursus C-45
The Ursus C-45 and C-451 was a popular Polish model of tractor. It was manufactured from 1947 to 1959 by the Ursus Factory in Warsaw, and from 1960 to 1965 by Zakłady Mechaniczne in Gorzów Wielkopolski.
History
Production of the Ursus C-45 mod ...
, a copy of the German pre-war
Lanz Bulldog
The Lanz Bulldog was a series of tractors manufactured by Heinrich Lanz AG in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Production started in 1921 with the Lanz HL, and various versions of the Bulldog were produced up to 1960, one of them being the ...
tractor. During the 1950s, the Ursus factory began producing tractors using a
Zetor
Zetor (since January 1, 2007, officially Zetor Tractors a.s.) is a Czech agricultural machinery manufacturer. It was founded in 1946. The company is based in Brno, Czech Republic. Since June 29, 2002, the only shareholder has been a Slovak com ...
-based design.
By 1961, there was a growing need for tractors in Poland, but the tractors produced by the Ursus factory did not meet the needs of Polish agriculture. A bilateral agreement was created between Poland and Czechoslovakia, where
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
would provide the Ursus factory with the parts necessary to enlarge and modernise the factory and in exchange, Poland would supply Czechoslovak factories with raw materials. The goal was to construct a joint tractor industry where Poland and Czechoslovakia would combine to produce 120,000 tractors per year, as in 1963 Poland was only producing 15,000.
Solidarity
Workers of the Ursus tractor factory played a large role in the solidarity movement in the 1970s and 1980s. On 25 June 1976 in response to a rise in
food prices
Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices have an impact on producers and consumers of food.
Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing an ...
, the workers of Ursus, acting in solidarity with workers in Radom and many other areas, went on strike and blocked and destroyed parts of the main east-west and north-south rail lines leaving
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
. This was one of the largest and most disruptive strikes that occurred that day, and resulted in the prime minister announcing on television the withdrawal of the food price increase.
In 1980, workers of the Ursus factory went on strike and spent the night at the factory to protest the detention of Jan Narozniak, a volunteer printing worker at the Warsaw chapter of Solidarity. Also in 1980, 16,000 workers threatened to stop coming to work on Saturdays in order to self-enforce the 5-day work week proclaimed by the
Solidarity
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
movement. In 1988, 200 workers in the Ursus factory occupied the plant canteen and demanded that the management petition for increased wages, the release of imprisoned workers, and the legalisation of Solidarity and the Independent Students' Association.
Investment under Gierek
The Ursus factory was the focus of an extensive investment initiative in the 1970s under
Edward Gierek
Edward Gierek (; 6 January 1913 – 29 July 2001) was a Polish communism in Poland, Communist politician and ''de facto'' leader of Poland between 1970 and 1980. Gierek replaced Władysław Gomułka as General Secretary of the Communist Party, F ...
. Under this programme, large loans were taken from western banks for the purpose of importing modern equipment and methods that would cause expansion of Polish industry and growth of the Polish economy. In 1977, a 7.9 million dollar export-import bank loan and a 7 million dollar loan from private
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
banks were granted to the Ursus tractor factory for the purpose of purchasing machine tools from the
Ingersoll Milling Machine Company Ingersoll may refer to:
People
*Ingersoll (surname)
*Ingersoll Lockwood (1841–1918), American lawyer and writer
Places Canada
* Ingersoll, Ontario
United States
* Ingersoll, Oklahoma
* Ingersoll, Wisconsin
* Ingersoll Township, Michigan
* ...
of
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...
, and
Gleason Works Gleason Corporation is a prominent machine tool builder based in Rochester, New York, USA. It has manufacturing plants in the USA, Britain, India, China, Switzerland and Germany, and sales offices in those and additional countries.
Gleason's import ...
in
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
. However, such investment programmes became inefficient and failed, leaving Poland with an immense debt.
By 1980, 25 billion dollars were locked into inefficient, unfinished projects in Polish industry that were speculated to require an additional 50 billion dollars to complete. The Ursus Tractor Factory was one of the largest victims of this problem. By 1981, equipment that had been purchased in the West at the Ursus Factory amounted to 3,600 million złoty. Warehouse space at Ursus was filled with unused, unnecessary supplies, e.g. a stock of 1.6 million rarely used screws, and since construction of new warehouse space had stopped, other supplies were left to deteriorate outside. Gierek had invested nearly 1 billion dollars into a project of developing a modern
Massey Ferguson
Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in T ...
model of tractor at Ursus, however due to licensing problems, these tractors could not be sold in the
Western Bloc
The Western Bloc, also known as the Free Bloc, the Capitalist Bloc, the American Bloc, and the NATO Bloc, was a coalition of countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. It was spearheaded by ...
during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
for political reasons, and in the
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
neither because they were too expensive. Instead of the targeted production of 75,000 tractors per year, only 500 were made.
Recent history
Ursus' tractor production declined throughout the 1990s, falling from 60,000 tractors per year in 1980 to about 16,000 tractors in 1995. The decline in production was due to the enormous debt that Ursus had contracted as a result of its expansion programme in the 1980s. The need to repay the debt blocked access to funds needed for the daily operations of the factory. In 1996, 550 million złoty, 80% of Ursus’ debt, owed to nearly 700 creditors, was written off. Tractor sales continued to decline to an all-time low of 1,578 units in 2006.
URSUS Company was established in the years 1998–2003 as a consequence of restructuring and cooperation of PHZ "Bumar" Ltd., ZPC URSUS SA and Ursus Tractor Factory Ltd.
The company is still producing Ursus
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
s. Bumar Ltd became the main shareholder of Ursus Company, leading to Ursus becoming part of Bumar Industrial Group, which is marketing Ursus products both on foreign and domestic markets.
In 2007,
Uzel Holding
Uzel Holding (also known as Uzel Group and Uzel Corporation) was one of Turkey's oldest and largest manufacturing companies. Its main sector was agricultural machinery, although it eventually branched out into the automotive industry and real est ...
of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
announced they were buying 51% of Ursus. Both Uzel and Ursus are, or were, licensees of
AGCO
AGCO Corporation is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1990 and with its headquarters in Duluth, Georgia, United States. AGCO designs, produces and sells tractors, combines, foragers, hay tools, self-propelled sprayers, ...
's
Massey Ferguson
Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in T ...
. In 2008 it was announced that Uzel had not kept up to its commitments, and
TAFE
Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...
and
Pol-Mot Pol-Mot Holding SA is a Polish holding company based manufacturer of agricultural equipment. Pol-Mot was established in 1968; it controlled the whole international trade and collaboration of Polish automotive industry, inclusive with license contra ...
were interested in buying.
In 2011
Pol-Mot Pol-Mot Holding SA is a Polish holding company based manufacturer of agricultural equipment. Pol-Mot was established in 1968; it controlled the whole international trade and collaboration of Polish automotive industry, inclusive with license contra ...
bought the Ursus Company from Bumar Ltd. Recently, the company is expanding its business in Central Europe and other countries, as well as planning to produce electric buses.
In 2013, a joint venture between Ursus and the Ukrainian company
Bogdan
Bogdan or Bohdan (Cyrillic: Богдан) is a Slavic masculine name that appears in all Slavic countries as well as Romania and Moldova. It is derived from the Slavic words '' Bog/Boh'' (Cyrillic: Бог), meaning "god", and ''dan'' (Cyrillic: ...
received an order for 38
trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es for the
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
, Poland, trolleybus system.
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 310 (July–August 2013), p. 106. UK: National Trolleybus Association. ISSN 0266-7452.] The body-and-chassis shells were completed by Bogdan and shipped to an Ursus plant in Lublin, where Ursus would install the
axle
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...
s, electrical propulsion equipment (supplied by
Cegelec
Cegelec is a French engineering company specialized in electrical infrastructure, HVAC, information technology, nuclear energy development, transport infrastructure, robotics and offering both public and private services. Cegelec was officially ...
), seats and other fittings, to complete the vehicles.
The first of the 38 Urbus/Bogdan trolleybuses, officially designated as model Ursus T70116, was delivered in mid-2013,
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 312 (November–December 2013), p. 164.] and the last were delivered in mid-2015.
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 324 (November–December 2015), p. 180.]
Ursus signed an agreement worth USD 10 million in 2014 to deliver 3000 tractors to Ethiopia
Models
* Ursus 1921/1922
* Ursus C-45
* Ursus C-308
* Ursus C-325
* Ursus C-328
* Ursus C-330/Ursus C-330M
* Ursus C-335/Ursus C-335M
* Ursus C-4011
* Ursus C-350/Ursus C-355
* Ursus C-360/Ursus C-360-3P
* Ursus C-362
* Ursus C-380/Ursus C-380M
* Ursus C-382
* Ursus C-385/Ursus C-385A
* Ursus C-392
* Ursus C-3102
* Ursus C-3110
* Ursus 902/Ursus 904
* Ursus 932/Ursus 934
* Ursus 1002 / 1004
* Ursus 1032 / 1034
* Ursus 1042 / 1044
* Ursus 1132 / 1134
* Ursus 1154
* Ursus 1201/
* Ursus 1204
* Ursus 1222 / 1224
* Ursus 1232 / 1234
* Ursus 1434
* Ursus 1614
* Ursus 1634
* Ursus 1654
* Ursus 1674
* Ursus 1734
* Ursus 1934
* Ursus 1954
* Ursus 2802
* Ursus 2812
* Ursus 3502/4502
* Ursus 3512/3514
* Ursus 3702
* Ursus 3722/3724
* Ursus 3822/3824
* Ursus 4022/4024
* Ursus 4512/4514
* Ursus 4822/4824
* Ursus 5024/6024
* Ursus 5044
* Ursus 5312/5314
* Ursus 5322/5324
* Ursus 5524
* Ursus 5714
* Ursus 6012/6014
* Ursus 6614
* Ursus 6824
* Ursus 7524
* Ursus 8024
* Ursus 8034
* Ursus 8014 H
* Ursus 9014 H
* Ursus 10014 H
* Ursus 11024
* Ursus U-4150
Prototypes
* Ursus C-336
* Ursus C-342
* Ursus C-330 3P
* Ursus C-355P
* Ursus C-355D
* Ursus C-356
* Ursus 202
* Ursus 944
* Ursus 1242/1244
* Ursus 1414S
* Ursus 4504
* Ursus 6424
* Ursus U-310
* Ursus U-510
* Ursus U-610
* Ursus U-710
* Ursus 14034
* Ursus 11034
* Ursus 10014T
See also
*
Ursus Bus
Ursus Bus is a Polish bus, coach, trolleybus manufacturer based in Lublin, Poland. The company was founded in 2015 by URSUS S.A. and AMZ-KUTNO S.A.
Products
Current electric models
* Ursus Ekovolt - low-floor 12m electric city bus
* Ursus ...
References
Sources
Open Society Archive** https://web.archive.org/web/20080106191927/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/41-4-120.shtml
** https://web.archive.org/web/20080106191952/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/46-1-243.shtml
** https://web.archive.org/web/20080106191931/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/44-6-190.shtml
** https://web.archive.org/web/20080106191946/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/45-4-220.shtml
The Warsaw Voice** http://www.warsawvoice.pl/archiwum.phtml/2713/
Poland Business Network** https://web.archive.org/web/20070927175626/http://www.polandbusinessnetwork.pl/news/index.php?contentid=140152
Time Magazine*
External links
*
Website of enthusiasts of Ursus plants
Ursus video clip collectionPhoto gallery of the abandoned halls
{{Automotive industry in Poland
Agricultural machinery manufacturers of Poland
Tractor manufacturers of Poland
Trolleybus manufacturers
Bus manufacturers of Poland
Electric vehicle manufacturers of Poland
Polish brands
Manufacturing companies established in 1893
Manufacturing companies based in Warsaw