Berthoud

Berthoud (BERTHOUD SAS) is a French manufacturer of agricultural and vineyard crop-protection sprayers based at 1 rue de l'Industrie in Belleville-en-Beaujolais. The company was founded in 1895 in the Beaujolais region by Paul Berthoud, whose first product was the Excelsior-Gobet backpack vine sprayer. Later milestones include the horse-drawn Toboggan sprayer (1913, about 24,350 units sold through the 1960s), the Speedatom tractor-mounted air-blast sprayer (1950), the GAMA piston pump (1964), the Mack sprayer built to European standards (1990) and the Speedair pneumatic trailed sprayer (1998). Berthoud joined the Exel Industries group in 1987 and won SIMA innovation awards in 2013 and 2015.

The field-crop range covers small mounted sprayers (PULVASOL, ALTO), large mounted sprayers (HERMES, HERMES DARK, HERACLES), trailed sprayers (SPRINTER, TRACKER, VANTAGE DARK, with a 4,000-litre TRACKER version) and self-propelled sprayers (RAPTOR and the SPECTRE collection). The vineyard range includes KATCH recovery panels, WIN'AIR trailed sprayers, CRUIS'AIR cells for straddle carriers and New Holland carriers, APOLO and VEGA dusters and MINI TRAC crawler cells. Electronic systems include SPRAYTRONIC, AIR DRIVE and ISOTRONIC, and the DARK line features the DUALELEC fully motorised configuration with continuous circulation and pneumatic anti-drip valves.

The robotics-related offering is SNIPER, an ultra-localised spraying system launched in 2021. Cameras mounted on the spray boom feed images to an AI model that analyses plant shape, texture and colour in real time, and nozzles are switched individually so that spraying occurs only where a target is detected. SNIPER supports green-on-brown and green-on-green detection, an ON/OFF mode, and a bi-zone mode that applies a base dose everywhere and a second dose on detected targets. The operator selects detection models from a cab screen, and spray maps can be exported to farm management software. Berthoud reports a 45 to 85 percent reduction in treatment frequency index based on more than 10,000 hectares of trials over three years in several European countries. Carbon Bee lists Berthoud as a partner and its SmartStriker system as compatible with Berthoud SPECTRE and VANTAGE sprayers.

Berthoud sells through a dealer network in France and abroad and offers financing and dedicated services, including the France-only Dark Privilege service.