Valerio Morra, President and Managing Director of the ARGO Group, has been nominated for the title of “Cavaliere del Lavoro” (Order of Merit for Labour) and will receive this highest of honours at the Quirinale Palace in October. This national award was founded in 1901 by King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy and it is still nowadays awarded to those “who have been singularly meritorious” in agriculture, industry and commerce.  “I feel very honoured and am very grateful to receive this award, but all the more so for the affirmation of a path through the cycle of life and work shared with men and women who, over the years, have raised first Landini and then Argo Tractors to the levels they have reached today. A long and successful activity such as this can only be based on a sound industry platform able to keep up with the changing times and situations, one that is based on a simple principle: the right people in the right place, at the right time. Another immense satisfaction is having passed these values and this passion on to the new generations of my family, as my father and grandfather did before me. By tradition unstable, the tractor industry has now become more firmly-based and active thanks to the dawning economies of the emerging countries. In contrast, although it's also very stimulating, the challenge of globalization has become decidedly more demanding. Backed by its know-how, its ability to transform ideas into products and services, its flexibility, dynamic outlook, research, innovation and training skills, Argo Tractors is ready to grasp every opportunity. And we intend to do this by remaining true to the Made in Italy principle, i.e. by basing our entire industrial process in our Italian production facilities”. Valerio Morra comes from Piedmont, being born in Bra (Cuneo). He was still very young when, upon the death of his father, he took over the management of the family business along with his brother Pierangelo and turned it into a market leader by acquiring Landini, legendary tractor manufacturer, in 1994. In 2001, the group acquired the McCormick tractor company in the United Kingdom and relocated its production to Italy.

The annual production potential of ARGO Group's Landini, McCormick and Valpadana brands amounts to some 24,000 tractors. The manufacturing processes take place in 4 production facilities situated in the Emilia region's Motor valley district. The distribution network comprises more than 170 dealers in Italy, 8 branches and 130 importers, with an overall 2,500 dealers world-wide. With exports amounting to around 83% of production, the Argo Group has expanded to 98 different countries and numbers 1,650 employees. 5% of the turnover is dedicated to research. Argo Group's business year closed high in 2013, at 480.0 million euro.