Case Studies
Issue No. 28 - April/May 2006
Seeds of success
Seed Genetics Australia
The idea would probably offend its dedicated principals, but it is fair to say specialist livestock feed producer Seed Genetics Australia has sprung up like a weed.
In its very short life SGA has managed to girdle the globe with its operations, taking its very efficiently produced and extremely hardy products to spring up in climatic conditions similar to ours, north and south of the equator.
The SGA business concept is laudably direct — a matter of creating a direct line between source IP and the product consumer and forming a company to handle all the stages in between.
SGA has four Directors and shareholders, each bringing relevant skills to the company: Dr Ross Downes (plant breeding and development), David Pengelly (production) Dennis Jury (business management and logistics) and marketer, Mark Harvey.
Mark was one of three foundation partners — Bruce joined later — who covered the spectrum of skills needed to bring their product to market. They began operations only three years ago.
Of course, they’re not inexperienced.
"I managed the international seed trading division of Elders," Mark says, by way of credentials. The others are equally prominent in their fields.
“We felt we could do things better; no one in Australia goes from glasshouse to warehouse in this area,” he says.
SGA makes seeds for cattle feed: lucerne (alfalfa) and white clover. When the firm was founded, all other activity in this quite specialised area took place between seed propagators and trading entities. Propagators had no control of their product after sale, and researchers sold their IP to traders who then had to carry heavy royalty burdens.
"We deliberately set about building a company where we would own the IP, do our own breeding, research and product development and take the products to market," Mark says.
SGA’s principal markets are evenly split around the world, around the 35 degree band of l...
