Genetics: Case France and bio-technologies (business model)

Résumé du document

Agricultural chemical industry has always been considered to be all but environmental friendly. Nevertheless it is also one of the industries trying to find out solutions to population's growth, overpopulation and their calamitous consequences on the environment -air, water and soil pollution. Our group, Case Ltd, is not an exception and has tried to make always safer and environmental friendly products. Researches on bio-technologies are one of the best ways to make profit while using a safer technology. That is why we decided to invest in bio-technological products. Case Ltd first launched in 1996 Herbfree, an herbicide which is an effective weed-killer for genetically modified crops and then a genetically modified maize seed to be used in conjunction with Herbfree: Herbfree seed. Herbfree plus Herbfree seed form the Herbfree System. The Herbfree System was first launched in Asia where the overpopulation and the correlated worries are the worst in the world. It has been very successful there. That is why the group decided to extend Herbfree commercial reach and to launch it in Europe.

Extraits

[...] On the other side, there is no point in buying an expensive and criticized GMO Herbfree seed if you are not planning to use the Herfree herbicide that goes with it and that is designed to boost productivity and profitability. Why should our offer go beyond mere products? Because our herbicides and seeds have or will have a lot of direct competition from alternative products (conventional seeds and herbicides) or from new entrants in the market (Monsanto and Rhone Poulenc). The real CUSTOMER VALUE will be in the associated services and in the growth perspectives linked to this product. b. [...]

[...] This failure has affected unfavorably the representatives ' moral. Furthermore French farmers and French public opinion are quite reticent to use new technology particularly when it concerns their food and their health. But French market is a very attractive market for the Herbfree System. It is indeed a big market with the biggest agricultural surface area in Europe (28,107,200 hectares) and the average farm's surface is about 35 hectares which means that French farms are big enough to use the System correctly. [...]

[...] Rhone Poulenc is clearly a market leader but it is only a big player at a national level. But it has recently sold its seeds division to Limagrain, and therefore it is not likely that it will develop a full solution like Herbfree. Novartis is the other leader of the market, specially in herbicides for maize, which is exactly the market segment we are aiming at. But its structure in France is divided into 4 different entities that sell seeds, herbicides, garden seeds and animal health products separately. [...]

[...] We plan it will be about 40 Euros per hectare. We will keep 20% of these 40 Euros i.e Euros per hectare. d. Competition The market for herbicides in France is a quite competitive market. There are at least 9 major competitors in this market. The most important are Rhone Poulenc, Novartis France, and BASF France. But in the bio-technology field competitors do not have the same advancement. Quite all have begun with working on GMO but only one launched a glufosinate resistant maize plant: Agrevo GmbH. [...]

[...] To avoid this threat, we chose to transform this threat into an opportunity: we plan to sell Public Relations Consulting and Support services and therefore turn advertising into a profitable (or at least break even) activity. Furthermore, this offer will increase the added value for the customer of our product. Finally, this allows us to take profit from our first entrant situation, as we will be the company with more experience in the field of communicating on GMOs. To distributors, we offer them a new, more stable and long term business model. [...]