b"Agrauxine by Lesaffre's North American sales team got together in Memphis this year for training and strategic planning.In addition, though, Bony says ABM provided a new set ofKempf. That means, energy goes into making field trials and en-crops to work with. Previously, Agrauxine was focused on special- suring all employees are specialists in what they do. All this R&D ty crops. Think crops more in grape, orchard and vegetable sector.ensures is that when customers use our product, theyre going to Meanwhile, ABM has a strong focus on row cropsparticularlyexperience the same thing every time.corn and soybean.In particular, Bony is most excited about the focus on the U.S. They had the access to the market knowledge on row crops,market. and thats a huge advantage when we try to develop our biostimu- There will be plenty of international opportunities coming lant, Smartfoil, on row crops, he says. When you bring all thosewith it, of course, but were excited about the opportunities in the aspects together, we can bring that biostimulation to differentPacific Northwest, says Bony. stages of a wide variety of crops. It was really a perfect fit for us,This opportunity, though, is twofold, Bony says. Previously, and it accelerated our own development. ABM products were not sold in all states and were more focused At the end of the day, Kempf says as a group theyve been ableon the Midwestnow, theres a way to accelerate that commer-to deploy 150 new products in 35 different geographies in lesscial development.than four years.When youre a small company, its just not possible to sell ev-The acquisition of ABM is quite a strong investment for userywhere, he continues. Now, we can work together to acceler-to deliver better structure, project management and products toate their commercial development with untapped opportunities customers, he says. in tandem with the launch of Smartfoil.When it comes down to it, this isnt just a one-way street for Same Faces, New Opportunities AgrauxineABM is excited about falling under the Agrauxine But, for customers, change is still intimidating and unpredictable.brand for the new opportunities it brings both companies.One question many may wonder: How is this going to change myOne major change youll see to ABM is a name changein-operation or my business? stead, ABM will now be under the Agrauxine brand as Agrauxine According to Kempf, yes, there will be change, but itll be aby Lesaffre.change in opportunities. When it comes to customer service,A brand is much more than a logo or a tagline, says Pete there will be no interruptions or changes.Hayes, vice president of marketing for Agrauxine in North We invest a lot of energy in understanding what our productAmerica. Its who you are as a company. That means all the way and our customers need to be successful in the market, saysfrom our sales staff to customer service to our production staff, 34/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2022"