Franck Berger, vice president of sales and marketing for Harris Moran Seed Company, has accepted an executive position with a Japanese affiliate.

Berger, who spearheaded HM's sales and marketing effort for the past three and a half years, joins Kyowa Seed in Tokyo as Executive Vice President in charge of seed activity. He will report to Mr. Nakamura, Kyowa's president.

Harris Moran's parent company, Limagrain, recently purchased a controlling share of the Japanese company to fulfill its strategy of developing a strong presence in the Asia Pacific area.

Berger will play a key role in directing the seed business activities within Kyowa and integrating it within the vegetable division of Groupe Limagrain.

"Franck will lend his considerable expertise in sales, marketing and research to further Kyowa's success, just like he has done here," says Bruno Carette, COO of Harris Moran, based in Modesto, California.

"We are pleased for Franck but saddened by his departure from Harris Moran, even though his new position remains within our Limagrain family."

Berger's promotion takes effect January 1, 2001. A replacement will be named at a later date.

Harris Moran expands further into South America
October 24, 2000

Harris Moran Seed Company has teamed up with a sister company and SNA, an established agricultural supplier in Chile, to form Alliance Semillas.

Headquartered in Santiago, the newly created vegetable seed distribution company will sell exclusively the products of Harris Moran and Clause Semences of France. Modesto, CA-based Harris Moran and Clause are owned by Groupe Limagrain, a 150-year-old French cooperative.

The setup of Alliance Semillas further develops an existing relationship among SNA, Clause and Harris Moran. SNA already handles Harris Moran and Clause/Tezier products.

The formation of the new company will be based on the existing distributorship of SNA. The personnel, assets, and inventories will be transferred into the new company.

Thomas Prata, HM’s director of international sales, will be president of Alliance and Mr. Manuel Bacigalupo will be general manager.

Franck Berger, vice president of sales and marketing for Harris Moran, said the Chilean partnership is the latest growth opportunity for Harris Moran. Just last month, Harris Moran formed a partnership with Kyowa of Japan.

"This latest venture in the Southern Hemisphere illustrates Harris Moran’s commitment to South America," says Berger. "We expect good things to happen."

Vilmorin-Clause & Cie in Japan
(1 August 2000)

Vilmorin-Clause & Cie. parent company of Harris Moran Seed Company -- has signed an agreement in principle to acquire 40% of the Japanese seed company Kyowa, ranked number in its domestic market.

Vilmorin-Clause & Cie thus becomes the most important shareholder of the company along with two companies of the Mitsubishi group, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Chemicals MKV Company, which it shares a common business vision of the future.

The transaction must be cleared by Japanese authorities and should be finalized by mid-September.

Kyowa Seeds, headquartered in Tokyo, is profitable and has a 10 billion-yen turnover (about 650 MF), a third of which is vegetable seeds.

Like all operators in this country, it distributes agricultural materials ? irrigation systems and plastics for greenhouses --, which allow it to feed its distributor network. Part of these complementary ranges of products is provided by the Mitsubishi Group companies.

The agreement calls for Kyowa to become a Vilmorin-Clause & Cie platform for the Asia-Pacific area and for the implementation of all possible synergies with its European and American subsidiaries, including Harris Moran -- in the fields of Research, Production, and Marketing.

A significant capital expenditure plan will be launched to give the Company the means necessary to fulfill its ambitions, from investing in biotechnologies to acquiring market shares, both domestically and internationally.

Thanks to this operation, Vilmorin-Clause & Cie finalizes the implementation of its worldwide professional network, and gains access to the genetic material specific to the Asia-Pacific area.

It now has with Kyowa - with its base in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Indonesia) and in Australia - a complete arsenal to grow into the most populated area of the globe where the consumption of vegetables is the highest.

Vilmorin-Clause & Cie also reinforces its worldwide leadership, based on its two fields, Professional and Home-Garden.

This operation ends years of efforts to find the best possible access to the huge Asian markets with Kyowa representing a very unique opportunity.

As it had been announced, year 2000 has shown the relaunch of external growth for Vilmorin-Clause & Cie with the permanent will to keep on improving its competitiveness and its profitability.

The 30 June, 2000 financial statements should, anew, illustrate this.

Vilmorin-Clause & Cie is the specialized vegetable and flower division of Groupe Limagrain, a farmer-owned French cooperative that's grown into one of the largest seed companies in the world.

Harris Moran President steps down
(29 June 2000)

Philip W. Ashcraft, president of Harris Moran Seed Company, has announced he will step down and semi-retire effective September 1.

Ashcraft, whose tenacity and leadership helped grow Harris Moran into a dominant player in the vegetable seed industry, will begin a career as a consultant within the ag industry. Among other projects, he will continue to represent Harris Moran in major industry associations and government relations as a senior advisor. He will also assist with legal affairs, the development of partnerships, mergers and acquisitions.

No replacement has been named at this point. For now, Ashcraft’s duties will be dispersed among senior management. Bruno Carette, Harris Moran’s chief operating officer, will continue to run the Modesto, CA-based company as Ashcraft moves on with his new endeavor.

This new arrangement will allow Ashcraft time to pursue other business and personal interests.

"Some might say it’s been hard, grueling work. But like most people in agriculture, my work has been more a labor of love," says Ashcraft. "We’ve witnessed a paradigm shift in our industry, from people selling seed off tailgates to people selling biotech products that will ultimately help feed the world. I’m honored to be helping in this exciting period."

Jean-Charles Ganas, former COO of Harris Moran who worked with Ashcraft, called him "a talented leader and a gentleman." Ganas now works for Groupe Limagrain, the French vegetables seed company that owns Harris Moran, Vilmorin, and Clause.

The son of a vegetable farmer, Ashcraft joined the company in 1990 as president after more than 25 years experience in agriculture.

During his regime at Harris Moran, the New Jersey native focused on teamwork, individual empowerment, and internal efficiency. Improvement in these areas put the company on solid financial footing for the first time in many years.

When Harris Moran merged with Ferry-Morse in 1997, Ashcraft’s duties shifted toward industry public relations and product liability issues. Using a network developed through his career-long leadership in industry associations, Ashcraft tackled seed-related issues, policies, and laws. Even now he is helping shape legislation regarding the next generation of seed evolution, biotechnology and intellectual property.

His service on many industry-related boards includes: Past president of the California Seed Association; immediate past Western regional vice president of the American Seed Trade Association; current president of the American Seed Research Foundation, and member of the advisory board of the new Biotechnology Center at the University of California at Davis. Earlier in his career he served as stockholder representative for CF Industries, a member of the Allied Seed Cooperative, Inc. and the National Fertilizer Development Center; president and chairman of the Board of Seedway, Inc.; as well as serving as a board and executive committee member of the Fertilizer Institute; and a member of the board of directors for the San Francisco French-American chamber of commerce.

Before coming to Harris Moran, Ashcraft’s experience included managing a chain of lawn and garden centers and directing the manufacture, production, and distribution of fertilizer, chemical and seed products for one of the nation’s largest suppliers where he served as corporate vice president.

Ashcraft is an active participant in community affairs as well. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of New York’s Upstate Medical Center. He also served as first vice president of the Everson Museum Board of Trustees, as well as chairman of the marketing committee of the Board of Directors of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

Ashcraft and his wife Lois live in San Ramon, California. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.

Harris Moran improves supersweet seed
(7 February 2000)

New varieties are good but not always the answer. Sometimes tweaking an older variety is all that's needed. Take the case of supersweet seeds.

As its name implies, it is a sweet variety. But among sweet corn varieties, the seed of supersweet has always tended to be smaller, more shriveled and more wrinkled than ordinary sweet corn seed.

With very little endosperm, the supersweet seed is virtually a hollow skin with an embryo inside. It tends to have lower seedling vigor and be more susceptible to plant disease that attacks the emerging seed.

Customer demand high
Despite its shortcomings, customer demand for the sweeter tasting corn pushed growers to overcome their resistance to plant the seed. And over the years, it has become a popular type.

Then in the fall of 1998, Harris Moran Seed Company began hearing reports about the plantability of shriveled supersweet.

Enter Tim Kunkel, senior product manager for processing vegetables. He recognized the problem, assembled a team to investigate the problem, and went about trying to tackle the problem.

Rally the troops
First he enlisted Keith Kubik, seed physiologist for Harris Moran. Hethen pulled in Todd Zehr and Sue Wilson of Sub-Sahara International, Inc., Sugar Land, TX. Sub-Sahara International is a film coat polymer company.

"We had to develop and test an affordable product in a short time," says Kubik. "It needed to be production friendly, visually attractive and most important, increase the planbability of shriveled supersweet seed."

Seed coating the answer
Wilson and Zehr developed a special seed coating polymer designed to double the weight of the original seed. Kubik made small production runs and lab germination tests. More testing was done at Harris Moran's Nampa, Idaho facility by Lavern Hanssen. Finally, Kunkel did planter box testing and arranged field tests.

Data collected from grower fields showed fewer doubles and triples and more uniform spacing for the coated seed. Based on these positive labs, Harris Moran coated 20,000 pounds of seed.

End result: satisfied customers
Customer feedback with the test seed was immediate. "A large New York sweet corn grower commented that Harris Moran sweet corn coat was a big improvement over current products," says Bill Rankin, account manager for Harris Moran.

"This was a very rewarding project," says Kubik. "Product development does not always work so smoothly. We had a good team of dedicated people. When dedicated people with diverse ideas get together with a common goal, good things usually happen."

Though the coating is still in the development stages, the future looks good. Look for this new and improved coating product later this year.

Harris Moran hires tomato breeder
(1 February 2000)

Harris Moran Seed Company is pleased to announce the addition of tomato breeder Michael E. Kuehn to its research team.

Kuehn, formerly with Campbell's Soup, brings 16 years of tomato breeding experience to Harris Moran. He will be based in Harris Moran's Davis, CA research facility, and will head the Solanaceae species team. Solanaceae consists of tomatoes – both processing and fresh market -- and peppers.

Jeff  McElroy, Harris Moran's vice president of research, says Kuehn's experience in breeding, management, and international seed production makes him a perfect fit for Harris Moran's breeding program.

"As far as tomato breeders go, he's one of the best," says McElroy. "His tomato processing varieties have gone into many everyday products. His breeding savvy as well as his international experience will help Harris Moran make additional in-roads into the tomato and pepper markets."

At Campbell's Soup, Kuehn managed Campbell's Seeds, also located in Davis, CA. His breeding work in processing tomatoes can be seen today in many well-known products including Prego spaghetti sauce and V-8 juice. His international travel has been extensive, both to seed production areas in Asia and sales regions in Europe and South America.

Kuehn received his Master of Science degree in plant breeding and pathology from Oregon State University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Idaho.

He and his sons own an 8-acre flower production farm called Kuehn Petals and Greens.

Changing of the Guard at Harris Moran
26 January 2002

Jean-Charles Ganas, chief operating officer of Harris Moran Seed Company, has been promoted to a position within the parent company of Harris Moran and will soon vacate his Modesto post.

Ganas will become chief executive officer of the commercial vegetable division of Groupe Limagrain. He will be based in Chappes, France.

Ganas came to Harris Moran 2 1/2 years ago to oversee the merger of Ferry-Morse Seed Company and Harris Moran. During his tenure, he successfully blended two separate corporate cultures into one focused company. Though sales have climbed during his watch, it is the successful transition of the merger that will become his legacy at Harris Moran.

"We have come a long way since the merger days," says Ganas. "Our breeding programs, our seed production, and our sales department have coalesced into one team. I have our people to thank for that. Together, we have created a solid foundation, upon which I'm confident Harris Moran will continue to grow."

Ganas' successor will be Bruno Carette, who is currently CEO/President of Limagrain Genetics Corp. (U.S.) and Limagrain Genetics, Inc. (Canada), based in Peoria, IL. Like Ganas, he is an agronomist by training. He has been with the Field Seed Division since 1994, serving as vice president of marketing/sales for Biotechnica/LG Seeds for two years, then as its COO/President, until 1997. Then between 1988 and 1993, he worked for Vilmorin, another Groupe Limagrain company, initially managing offshore production activities until 1990, when he became vice president of production.
 
"I welcome the opportunity to guide Harris Moran into its next phase," says Carette. "In the two short years since the merger, a vibrant and innovative company has sprung to life. I look forward to harnessing its energy and potential."

Carette takes over as COO the first week in January.