In the story of the international growth of SDF, the Grégoire brand deserves a dedicated chapter of its own. 

In 2011  SDF acquired the French company Grégoire, a world leader in the manufacture of grape and olive harvester machines. Despite the acquisition, Grégoire has never lost its identity, and this in-depth look into the history of the company born from the intuition of one man, Edmond Grégoire, retraces the key moments in its history.

In 1946, Edmond Grégoire founded Grégoire in Saint-Martial-Sur-Né (Charente-Maritime) in France to produce equipment for viticulture. The move to the current site in Châteaubernard (Cognac) took place in 1970, precisely at the time when the first self-propelled harvesting machines, branded Vectur, and for which Grégoire became the official distributor, were coming to Europe from America. The intention at the time was to move increasingly away from hand picking toward mechanised harvesting.

Spurred by its success, Grégoire became a limited company and produced small viticulture tools under a distinct brand name. The first towed harvester, Grégoire PMH, dates back to 1978, while the prototype of the first 100% self-propelled Grégoire was unveiled in 1984 . 

The company has scored one success after another since the mid-1980s: such as the ARC harvester head, acclaimed as an extremely gentle and plant-friendly system, and the G90V model, which works two rows  simultaneously.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Grégoire detained 45% of the market with 370 machines built per year, including the self-propelled G80, which is mainly suited to narrow vineyards, and the first Grégoire self-propelled grape harvesters dedicated exclusively to export, with a range of models optimised for the needs of Australian and South African vineyards.

In the second half of the 1990s, Grégoire made its first foray into the world of vineyard sprayers and, to cater for a sector that is particularly widespread throughout the Mediterranean region, olive harvesters.

The harvesters of the 2000s offer extraordinary levels of comfort and are designed to be easy to drive, compact and light. They are machines with excellent visibility, offered with a comprehensive suite of implements for outstanding precision in grape harvesting and suitable for all types of vine work.

An example of this is Ecoprotect, a technology launched by Grégoire in 2013 which allows vines to be treated at high speed and with very low dispersion, offering significant savings in treatment expenditure and improved environmental impact. This innovative vine treatment system earned the company the silver medal for innovation at Sitevi in Montpellier, the international trade fair for the vine-wine, fruit and vegetable and olive-growing sectors.

In 2015, a record-breaking turning radius of 3.60 metres was achieved with the G7.200 machine, allowing for extreme manoeuvrability. That same year, Grégoire also presented patented new ground holding technology that would be offered throughout its entire range of grape harvesters.

In 2017, Grégoire won two medals for innovation at Sitevi. One for the AutopincH system, which automatically and continuously adjusts the aperture of the shakers and the intensity of the agitation action exerted on the vine by the grape harvester’s shaking rods; the other for the NEOmap system, which maps and georeferences productivity to permit the development of more efficient agronomic strategies. The harvesters equipped with these technological solutions are the GL7 and GL8.

The GL6.4 grape harvester, an extremely fuel-efficient machine boasting very low running costs, was introduced In 2020, while the versatile GX9 MIXTA grape harvester for super-intensive vineyards, almond orchards and olive farms was launched the year after.

In 2022, Grégoire launched the GSE, a highly specialised, high precision machine with a cab offering the driver an excellent view of the implements. Built built to harvest in 1.50 m and 1.70 m wide vineyards respectively, the GT3 & GX3 are the first towed grape harvesters with ISOBUS (a system allows different farming implements to communicate with each other and with the machine through one common language).

It is perhaps no coincidence that as a result of so many innovations and with the increase in production (400 machines and 300 sprayers sold last year), in 2023 SDF renovated the Châteaubernard plant to mark the centenary of the birth of founder Edmond Grégoire.