RZ-100-wt4-E-flipbook-240702 - Flipbook - Page 86
Board of Rijk Zwaan itself will be number 11 on the
In the negotiations, Ben Tax and his colleagues
list. Board members Ben (Tax), Anton (van Doorn-
use every chance they get to draw attention to the
malen) and Maarten (Zwaan) say they do not
possibility of a management buyout. Although BP
approve of seven of the ten companies and want
seems sympathetic to Rijk Zwaan’s desire to be
them to be removed from the list. BP first wants
independent, for now the company doesn’t believe
to wait for the bids, however. Both sides reach a
that the Board can make a sufficiently high bid.
compromise: the list will remain as it is, but no
more new companies will be added. In addition,
Behind the scenes, however, Rijk Zwaan’s three-
Rijk Zwaan comes up with the following conditions:
man Board is working tirelessly to still give the
management buyout a real chance and is in talks
• Rijk Zwaan should remain fully intact.
with several parties (for financial support).
• The company’s identity and image should be
fully safeguarded.
• The existing employment numbers, with the
The mood at the negotiations becomes grimmer
when it appears that the agreements that were
employees’ current working conditions, should
made will not be honoured. The main turning
be maintained.
point in the negotiations is in the week of 17 April
1989, when it becomes clear that Asgrow, a
company that Rijk Zwaan had emphatically not
agreed to, is nevertheless added to the list of
prospective buyers by BP despite earlier commitments not to add new companies. At the same
Asgrow Inc.
time, BP says Asgrow has a good chance of
becoming the new owner of Rijk Zwaan. This is a
severe disappointment for everybody who cares
The Associated Seed Growers, Inc. (Asgrow) was founded in 1927
about Rijk Zwaan, as Asgrow also owns competitor
when US seed competitors Everett B. Clark Seed Co. John H. Allen
Bruinsma. The overlaps with that company will
Seed Co. and N.B. Keeney & Son merged with each other.
almost certainly lead to a loss of jobs and
The company, which is based in New Haven in the US, is not given
autonomy at Rijk Zwaan. The company will also
the name ‘Asgrow’ until 1958. Ten years later, pharmaceutical
lose some of its markets, as Asgrow itself operates
production firm Upjohn Company acquires Asgrow by means of
in the same areas. Rijk Zwaan will probably only
a share swap, as it wants to diversify its business towards food
be allowed to focus on the north-western European
production. At that time, the company was not far from developing
market. The main objection, however, is that Asgrow
its first soya bean, the plant species with which the company
wants to separate the Research, Production,
became a household name from 1975 onward. In 2007, Asgrow
Marketing and Sales departments. This means
(by then part of Monsanto) is the fastest-growing soya bean brand
that Rijk Zwaan can only keep control of the
in the US. In 1996, Asgrow is acquired by Monsanto, and it hasn’t
research for certain products, whereas it believes
operated as an independent company since then.
that the entire process from development to
end-user is important. After all, this is the only way
that market demands can be quickly and efficiently
communicated to the research department.
History of Asgrow
As such, Asgrow’s inclusion on the candidate list
1927: founded in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
represents a deterioration in the relationship
1937: takeover by Upjohn Campany.
between Rijk Zwaan and BP.
1994: sale to the Mexican Empresas La Moderna SA.
1996: sale to Monsanto.
2018: BayerAG buys Monsanto (and thus Asgrow).
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Rijk Zwaan | Moving forward together
