Novartis And Zeneca Complete Merger

“Providing the best solutions for our customers’ operations means delivering effective and efficient pest management tools,” noted Keelan Pulliam, head of Syngenta’s professional products group. “Our goal is to build optimal package of chemistries and technology to help our customers.”

As these pesticide suppliers get so much bigger due to consolidation, the question is how end users of their products will actually benefit. Syngenta plans to use its considerable research and development budget to develop products not traditionally expected of pesticide suppliers. “Syngenta will provide customers with value-added technologies and expertise,” explained the company in a press release. “Plans include development of digital predictive pest forecasting models, GPS/GIS chemical program application software, and online access to professional chemical and business management information.”

The question of what pesticide suppliers, especially those new multi-billion-dollar companies, can do to better serve lawn care operators (LCOs) is something Syngenta managers hope to provide exciting answers for. “We want to become more knowledgeable about LCOs’ businesses,” explained Chuck Buffington, lawn and ornamental market manager. “By focusing in on this market, we can understand it and its needs, whether they are packaging, improved products or new products. To supply a market well you have to understand it, and I think we’ve got that focus.

“The other thing we’re able to do is take a solutions-oriented approach with a broad product portfolio,” Buffington continued. “This is not just a one-product company. We fit the needs of the landscape professional. We’ve got a new grub-control product company, and we fill most of the LCO’s pesticide needs.”

Being bigger also means having access to bigger dollars, and Buffington explained how companies like Syngenta can help their customers run their businesses better. “We’re working with a pest forecasting group that uses models and weather maps to try to predict where disease or insects will occur so, in essence, an LCO can pull up the map and see that the grubs are heading his direction or that conditions are right for brown patch,” he explained. “This gives that person a heads up to identify which lawns in his area are sensitive to different problems. This also confirms that problems aren’t just on one LCO’s properties and gives him something he can show his customers.

Don Breeze, head of turf and ornamentals for Syngenta, explained that mergers such as the union that yielded Syngenta also create greater critical mass for the turf and ornamental market, which means more dollars can be allocated for research. “There are very meaningful discussions in all of our businesses about coming up with a solutions approach,” he explained. “Our product range is so broad that we want to be careful not to cannibalize our own line, but there are a lot of things we want to bring to the market, such as resistance management. We may actually recommend a competitor’s product in rotation with one of our products if that will help avoid resistance. If we can do that then we are bringing a long-term solution to the market.”

Of course, an area of real interest for pesticide users is new product development, and Buffington confirmed this is an area of focus for Syngenta. “We’re seeing more of a focus on premium products with lawn and landscape professionals,” Buffington observed. “Performance counts more now than ever before, and LCOs are somewhat more willing to pay for performance because they are figuring out that customer retention is the key. Getting a new customer to replace the one I lost because of poor product performance costs more than paying up front for better product performance.”

Buffington also said LCOs can expect to see more “reduced-risk” products entering the market because “the only products getting through the EPA right now are reduced risk or organophosphate replacements.” That presents greater challenges to manufacturers who must deliver safer products with increasing performance characteristics.

“We think the things we can bring to the LCO are going to be value added over efficacy because having efficacy is really the entry level for playing in this business today,” added Breeze. “There are a lot of ‘me-too’ products on the market, and everyone expects that whatever they buy will work pretty well. So we’re trying to look at what else we can do, such as the pest forecasting group.”