You can take the company out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the company.

Formerly known as New Holland Machine Company or Case New Holland, CNH has grown into a global conglomerate that its founders never could've imagined. But the company will always be linked to the New Holland area - its farming, its work ethic, its ingenuity.

"Here in Lancaster County, we see a lot of farms and a lot of farmers," said Mark Lowery, the director of dealer development for CNH in North America. "Do people know our story? Certainly, people involved with agricultural production do. It goes back to, 'Do you know where your food comes from?' The broader population in Lancaster County might not know the story. But there's been a long history of agricultural production here."

It's a story of innovation, mergers and acquisitions and small-town values playing well on a world stage.

The roots of CNH can be traced to a New Holland barn 131 years ago and a gentleman named Abe Zimmerman. Today, CNH, which is headquartered in Great Britain, operates 40 plants around the world; employs a total of 35,000 workers; and generates in excess of $20 billion in global revenue.

"CNH is a global brand, but a lot of people don't know it was originally named after a town in eastern Lancaster County," said Lowery. "We owe a lot to this local area and the innovations that made us a global brand."

CNH still operates a location in its 6,000-resident hometown of New Holland, at 500 Diller Road. But thanks to advances in technology, the operation looks a lot different than it did a century ago.

CNH's New Holland location is a 350-acre campus consisting of five buildings - an administration building, a technical center focusing on research, development and design, a building for combine field testing, a technical training center and a home for CNH industrial capital. The local campus also operates a company farm at the site.

The New Holland location of CNH employs about 900 workers.

"I think one of the keys to the evolution is that our pace never slows down for research and development," said Lowery, "and one of those research and development centers is here in New Holland. It's about a lot of talented people and having them in the right places. It's about investing in sites like New Holland and bringing in people who are passionate about the products."

CNH manufactures off-road equipment for agriculture and construction, everything from tractors to harvesting equipment, from balers to sprayers, from utility vehicles to implements. Every product CNH makes is designed to maximize human energies.

"We have 11,000 patents registered for products that we invented or innovated," said Lowery, a resident of Willow Street. "Engineering influences all the products we make."

"As far as agriculture goes, the farmer and rancher are our primary customers," continued Lowery. "They use our products to feed and make food. Certainly, the focus is, 'How do we help people be more efficient?' Farmers and ranchers have to continue to be more efficient. Our challenge is to use technology to make machines that are more efficient and make people's lives easier. We help farmers be more profitable."

After Zimmerman's initiatives were incorporated in 1903 as New Holland Machine Company, four Lancaster businessmen bought the company in 1940 and partnered with Ed Nolt, the inventor of a small square baler.

"The key innovation that made the site important was the square baler," said Lowery. "That propelled New Holland as a company. It had immediate success and it had a global effect."

During the 1990s, the New Holland enterprise became affiliated with both Ford and Fiat. In 1999, the company that is now CNH was created.

"To have a homegrown company - with local people who have supported it - make a global impact is important to New Holland and Pennsylvania," said Lowery. "For a lot of folks, from here and across Lancaster County, this company has been very important, and I think they want to see that success continue. There are so many people who have a connection, either people who worked here or whose parents worked here."

The New Holland location of CNH operates a tour center and company store on site that caters to the curious. The center offers guided walking tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 p.m. and the company store is open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the same days.

For additional information, go to http://www.newholland.com.