St. Louis, Missouri
June 8, 2005
Cotton
producers - and the agricultural retail network that supports
them - should realize some significant benefits from the
integration of Monsanto
Company and Emergent Genetics currently underway.
A higher level
of sales and technical support, faster development of new cotton
varieties, and a wider selection of varieties with Monsanto
technology traits are just a few of the improvements that
producers and retailers can anticipate in the wake of the two
companies joining forces, according to Monsanto and Emergent
Genetics officials.
"Specific to
our presence in the South, we will be investing even more in
facilities and people resources to grow this business and better
meet the needs of our customers," said John Raines, U.S.
Marketing Lead for Monsanto. "By combining the brand strength
and cotton breeding expertise of Emergent Genetics with
Monsanto's leading research, development and manufacturing
capabilities, we'll be in a position to create even more value
to farmers who grow not only cotton, but also key rotational
crops such as corn and soybeans."
Raines adds
that both farmers and retailers should now have quicker and
easier access to crop information and technologies that apply to
cotton and the other major crops they grow and support.
"The
integration of the Emergent Genetics field sales and technical
development representatives into the current Monsanto Coastal
Region structure will result in more people and smaller
territories than the former structures of both Emergent Genetics
and Monsanto sales and technical support," Raines said.
Don Threet, former vice president
of Emergent's U.S. business, who will be national account
manager for cotton in his new position with Monsanto, emphasizes
that the new integrated organization will offer a breadth of
sales and technical forces that will be unparalleled in the
cotton industry. "Growers will have better access to information
and more choices in germplasm in both existing and new cotton
technologies,' he explained. "New germplasm and technologies
will be brought to the market through the use of molecular
markers and bi-parental crosses."
Currently, both the Monsanto and
Emergent Genetics sales organizations are focused on concluding
the 2005 season, operating separately and reporting to their
current management. The new sales structure will go into effect
in July, and the new sales teams will work to complete the
initial transition by August 1, 2005. From August onward, the
newly aligned territories and the integrated business plan for
2006 will be in effect, Raines said. |