Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
October 25, 2011

Becker Underwood has hired a new product manager - the second person hired to fill a brand new position and the third person to join the sales and marketing team since September.

As product manager, David Townsend will work within four markets - peas and lentils, horticulture and specialty, soybeans, and canola seed enhancements.

Townsend is well known across the agriculture industry. His joining the company is another signal to customers that Becker Underwood is growing quickly and is making a major impact on agriculture in Canada. The company is positioning itself for rapid growth over the next three to five years.

Since graduating from the University of Guelph, Townsend has spent over 25 years in agribusiness. He started his career in product development with a crop protection company in Western Canada before taking technical product manager and agronomy positions at a major seed company.

"David brings a wide variety of skills to this position and has a lot of contacts within key markets," says Ralph deVries, director of marketing. "He has agronomic know-how and experience in a variety of crops across Canada. He is also an innovative marketer who has used new social media tools to connect to customers."

Townsend will focus right away on getting to know the Becker Underwood customers. He'll match current and future customer needs of assigned markets with products, programs and services that are consistent with the scope of Becker Underwood's corporate focus and technological expertise.

The Becker Underwood portfolio of products is expanding with the addition of Nodulator® spherical granules to the current BioStacked® liquid and self-adhering peat formulations for soybeans. New Nodulator® XL will also be sold for peas and lentils in 2012. Also, a new biological control product for fusarium, rhizoctonia and pythium in soil mixtures, called Tackle™, was recently registered.

Becker Underwood has been aggressively staffing up for the past two years. The company has hired a new district manager for horticulture and specialty crops, hired a field agronomist in Danielle Fletcher, and another district manger in Manitoba.

Becker Underwood, Inc., founded in 1982, is an international developer of bio-agronomic and specialty products. In addition to being the leading manufacturer of seed coatings and colorants, the company is also the leading global producer of inoculants, beneficial nematodes, and a wide range of agricultural and horticultural products. To learn more about how we are inventing the future, visit our web site at www.BeckerUnderwood.ca.

Website: http://www.seedquest.com/yellowpages/americas/usa/b/beckerunderwood/default.htm

Published: October 26, 2011