Recent Local Investments Now Total $135 Million
Facility to Formulate New Products for Corn Market
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayer Corporation, the U.S.
subsidiary of the worldwide Bayer Group, has taken another significant step in
its commitment to Kansas City as headquarters of its agriculture businesses
with a groundbreaking ceremony for a $30 million herbicide facility at the
company's crop protection manufacturing site.
This investment follows September's dedication of Bayer's new $45 million
facility to manufacture the active ingredients in the new corn herbicide,
Axiom, and October's dedication of a new $60 million animal health
manufacturing facility in Shawnee.
These investments in Kansas City, totaling $135 million, are among several
other important actions Bayer has taken recently. They include
-- An agreement in principle with Pursell Industries to form a new
company to co-market products to the U.S. consumer lawn and garden
market under the Bayer brand.
-- An agreement to form joint ventures to serve the North American seed
treatment market through the Gustafson businesses.
-- A $25 million investment in a limited partnership capital fund that is
investing in the agriculture biotechnology field.
"Our current investment continues Bayer's strategy of meeting the crop
protection needs of farmers through innovative herbicides," said Emil Lansu,
president of Bayer Corporation's agriculture division. "These products offer a
means for farmers to improve crop yield and quality by providing a broader
spectrum of protection from grass and broadleaf weeds, as well as offering new
chemistries that are environmentally advantageous.
"These herbicides also give growers a flexible tool that can be used in
any pre-emergence weed control program, including those involving genetically
engineered crops," Lansu added.
The new facility will be operational in the autumn of 1999. Products to be
formulated there include Axiom, a corn and soybean herbicide introduced last
spring; Epic, a corn herbicide that will be introduced in 1999, pending EPA
approval; and Sencor, a popular soybean herbicide that has served that market
for several decades.
The new facility will help Bayer meet the increasing demand by growers for
dry-flowable herbicides, which offer significant handling advantages.
The facility will operate on a just-in-time logistics schedule, allowing for
the delivery of raw materials right at the time they are needed and the
subsequent quick, direct shipment of product to customers.
Bayer Corporation is a research-based company with major business in
health care and life sciences, chemicals and imaging technologies. The company
had 1997 sales in the U.S. of $9.3 billion and employs more than 26,000
people. Bayer Corporation, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, is a member of the
worldwide Bayer Group, a $32 billion chemical and pharmaceutical company based
in Leverkusen, Germany.
Axiom, Epic and Sencor are trademarks of Bayer AG.
SOURCE Bayer Corporation
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CONTACT:
Gregory M. Coffey of Bayer, 816-242-2559
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