MEMO: DEER OFFERING MORE NEW PRODUCTS

Despite soft markets for machinery sales, Deere & Co. hopes to match last year's profits by introducing more than 100 new products this year, with more than half of them intended to help capture a larger share of the European farm market.

Chairman and CEO Robert Lane told analysts and investors last week that the Moline, Ill.-based company is placing renewed emphasis on innovation and efficiency.

Of the new products introduced this year, more than 50 will be introduced to European farm customers in the company's largest-ever new product launch overseas. Officials said many will be tractors and harvesting equipment customized for specific uses.

Headlining the line of new products is the John Deere SST lawn tractor, billed as a riding residential lawn mower that uses new technology to make much tighter turns than possible with other models.

Deere officials say they hope this year's profits will equal last year's, when the company reported net income of $485.5 million, or $2.06 per share, on revenues of $13.14 billion. In the long term, Lane said, the company hopes to have net sales and revenues of $40 billion by the end of the decade.