Germains Seed Technology

Six Sigma success for Germains employees

germainsadmin — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:29:17 +0000

Germains would like to congratulate two of its employees, Chris Dale and Agnieszka Szkurlat, for having successfully completed their Six Sigma training through the delivery of two projects with their teams.

Six Sigma is the strategic analysis of processes used to achieve near perfect quality of outputs, and because of the success of these projects the business can benefit from these improvements.

Chris Dale has been awarded Black Belt for his project on optimising the sugar beet pelleting process. The project resulted in being able to run the pelleting machines semi automatically. Agnieszka Szkurlat has also been awarded her Green Belt for work on improving the sugar beet filmcoating process. Both of these projects have resulted in a significant increase in operating equipment effectiveness. Both Chris and Agnieszka had support from their project teams, so a big well done to all involved.

Germains recognises the need to develop our employees in order to deliver our ambitious growth plans, and we look forward to seeing the benefits of these projects, whilst seeing our employees develop.

Germains sponsors 73rd IIRB Congress

germainsadmin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:05:39 +0000

The IIRB (International Institute of Beet Research) held its 73rd Congress in Brussels, which Germains Seed technology proudly sponsored. This Congress focused on the “Efficiency and sustainable development in sugar beet production” and boasted a full agenda of speakers and poster presentations. It was also a valuable networking opportunity for stakeholders in the sugar beet industry from across the globe. Germains had a strong team there in order to talk to the industry, sharing news of our increasing success in delivering value via our technologies, to finding out how we can work more closely to deliver even more value to the whole industry. Overall, the 73rd IIRB Congress was a great success and Germains looks forward to the ongoing collaborations with the sugar beet industry.

Germains announces collaboration with Wolf Trax

germainsadmin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:59:49 +0000

Germains Seed Technology (“Germains”) & Wolf Trax, a manufacturer of innovative plant nutrition products, are pleased to announce a collaboration which will see an exciting development for the Seed Industry in plant health, in the form of goseed PROTINUS. Both Parties have signed an exclusive agreement for Germains to be the sole supplier of PROTINUS for lettuce, carrots, spinach, onions, parsnips and tomatoes in the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington and the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

goseed PROTINUS is a unique seed technology which provides a healthy start to a range of horticultural crops. It is formulated to promote early seed nutrition, and is proven to increase early seedling development and root growth under a variety of growing conditions.

Business Director Cathy Farr commented “This is an exciting time for Germains exploring new and innovative seed technologies, and our collaboration with Wolf Trax, an innovator in research-proven plant nutrition technologies, allows us to support the seed companies in delivering strong, healthy seeds to the horticultural industry.”

PROTINUS™ is a trademark of Wolf Trax, Inc., used under license by Germains Seed Technology, Inc..

Germains supports AIB’s industry-wide agreement to strengthen IP protection

germainsadmin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:12:06 +0000

Germains recognises that seed traceability and IP protection is an area of significant focus and concern for our customer base. With this in mind we have been in active discussion with ESA and the ‘Anti Infringement Bureau’ (AIB) on the proposed industry wide agreement to tackle the area of IP protection.

During the 2011 European Seed Association Annual (ESA) Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, Germains Seed Technology (Germains) signed a Cooperation Agreement with the Anti-Infringement Bureau (AIB) on Intellectual Property Rights of Plant Material, the authority for prevention and control of illegal multiplication of protected vegetable seeds.

The AIB is a neutral and independent association, founded in 2008 and is run based on the participation and support of its member companies and the wider industry.

AIB’s Managing Director, Casper van Kempen, welcomes Germains involvement “As one of the industry’s leading seed enhancers, the AIB Board and I are delighted that Germains are adding their weight behind this important initiative”.

Germains’ Daniel Johnson, Business Director – Horticulture, said: “Germains feel strongly that collaboration will drive our industry. For this reason, we are very pleased to be a part of AIB’s initiative. We take our role within the Seed Industry very seriously and want to ensure a protected and healthy, sustainable future for the whole value chain”.

For more information on AIB and its activities, please visit the website www.aib-seeds.com

Germains holds first annual Global R&D Conference

germainsadmin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:57:06 +0000

On Monday 26th September 2011 Scientists and Managers from Germains’ 3 R&D Centres, King’s Lynn (UK), Gilroy (US)and Enkhuizen (NL) met in King’s Lynn for a two and a half day meeting. The objective of this meeting was to further strengthen the integration process of the worldwide R&D resources.

The meeting included, reviews of new product development projects, safety, a seminar session hosting external speakers, a team building challenge exercise and a brainstorming session aimed at optimising R&D efforts across the company. The external speakers from the Universities of Aberdeen, Warwick and Exeter were joined by a customer representative from Rijk Zwaan.

The speakers and the titles of the papers presented were as follows:

Dr Stan Matthews (University of Aberdeen and ISTA) presented a paper, co-authored with Dr Alison Powell, entitled,” Aging and it’s repair: the basis of seed quality evaluation and potential rapid molecular methods.”
Professor Bill Finch-Savage (University of Warwick and Chairman of the International Seed Science Society, ISSS) presented on,” Using recent advances in seed science to develop technologies for enhanced seed performance.”
Professor Jim Beynon (Also of the University of Warwick) presented a talk entitled,” Revealing the intimate and complex interactions of plants and their pathogens.”
Professor Murray Grant (University of Exeter) presented a talk entitled,” Outstanding food security issues – bacterial plant disease and exploiting Trichoderma for increased crop productivity.”
Mr Ger Lenssen (Rijk Zwaan) presented a more customer-centric view of working with third parties on product development entitled, “Rijk Zwaan philosophy and view on seed technology in relation with external parties.”

The event is extremely important for Germains to bring innovative and sustainable technologies to the Seed Industry, and will form the basis of future Global R&D meetings.

Ab Aarnoudse, R&D Manager – EU Horticulture (aaarnoudse@germains.com)

Dale Krolikowski, Head of Operations & Research – NA Horticulture (dkrolikowski@germains.com)

Eric Paterson, R&D Manager – Sugar Beet (epaterson@germains.com)

Germains to join ‘Seed Valley’ in Enkhuizen

admin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:24:50 +0000

Specialist seed technology business, Germains, will put itself right at the heart of the European seed industry when it opens its new research and development centre in Enkhuizen, the Netherlands.

Agreement has been reached to create a new R&D centre for Germains in Enkhuizen. The move has come to satisfy calls for the company to get closer to its’ customers. “By opening a facility in Enkhuizen we will gain a presence alongside many of the leading plant breeding and genetics businesses in the Netherlands. By doing this we are demonstrating our commitment to work closely with the seed industry – to understand the issues they seek to address so that we can develop solutions tailored to their needs” said Daniel Johnson, Germains’ Business Director for EU Horticulture.

Germains offer a range of innovative technologies including priming, pelleting, film-coating and seed health. The new centre in Enkhuizen is the latest part of an expanding research team.

Mr Johnson continued “The Enkhuizen team will complement our existing operations in the UK and US to play a pivotal role in Germains Global Research & Development team. We are excited by the prospect of becoming part of Seed Valley and look forward to working collaboratively with our customers so we can maximise the potential of our combined global expertise.”

At present, Germains has agreed on the premises it will occupy in Enkhuizen. A formal opening date will be announced in due course.

Germains welcomes new Finance Director

germainsadmin — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:29:20 +0000

Germains is delighted to announce the appointment of Mark Ashworth, who joins the Board as Finance Director.

Mark is ACA qualified and holds an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University. Mark brings with him a wealth of knowledge, skills and experiences which will be of great value to Germains, both now and in the future.

At his previous employer, Mark held a number of senior positions, including European Finance Director. Mark was responsible for delivering a strategic vision plan to the Board, as well as being responsible for the acquisition and integration of subsidiaries around the world.

Mark will be heavily involved in ensuring that we continue to develop our global business. A big welcome from the Germains team.

EU Sugar Beet team expands into central Europe

germainsadmin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:19:52 +0000

EU Sugar Beet Director, Neil Fyfe, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ludwig Pülschen to Germains Seed Technology. Ludwig joins as Business Development Manager for Central Europe focusing on Sugar Beet, and will be based in Germany.

Ludwig has worked extensively in agricultural development for twenty-eight years, including positions in Chile and Ethiopia, and he is conversant in several languages.

Bringing Ludwig into Germains demonstrates our commitment to exploring opportunities to maximise the potential of sugar beet across Europe.

4 new seed technologies launched at ASTA

germainsadmin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:11:53 +0000

Germains Seed Technology launches 4 new seed technologies at ASTA’s 50th Vegetable & Flower Seed Conference, taking place from 22 – 25 January 2011.

Click on the below seed technologies of Germains to find out more and if you can, stop by Booth T24 to chat to our team about these exciting new products.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from all at Germains Seed Technology

germainsadmin — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:49:06 +0000