News and Press Releases

Miami, FL, U.S., October, 2007 – James Bristow, the General Manger of the Rotam Group’s International Agrochemical Division, was invited to deliver a speech at the XVI International Plant Protection Congress 2007 entitled “The Global Expansion of a Generic Agrochemical Company”.

The speech focused on a discussion of the key characteristics & core strengths that form a firm foundation for a sustainable generic company.  Covering aspects such as where to locate chemical production and why that country must be developed as a strong home branded market not just a manufacturing base; application of Business Best Practice regardless of nationality; strengthening light industrial complex as well as active ingredient synthesis; interlinking major regions & crops on a global basis to achieve critical mass; development of an industrial base with guts but operating with a branded concept; finally the need to be mentalised and committed into long term continuing investment in technology, product development and registration.

Bristow also compared & contrasted the organic verses acquisition routes to growth and highlighted the need to understand your own mind set as an industrial or market driven company.

Bristow shared 17 years of experience in growing Rotam in a case study highlighting mistakes made & problems faced during the various stages of Rotam’s evolution from a company operating in 3 countries with relatively weak regulatory requirements in 1992 to a company operating in 54 countries including US, EU and Brazil.  Bristow recalled that having a vision to operate globally in 1992 was fine in theory but it was a case of  “planning a walk in the hills only to find they are a mountain range that needs to be crossed “. 

He recalled joining Rotam just at the time when the 1st China plant for Methomyl was online with a 1000MT capacity state of the art facility but Rotam had only 1 registration and 1 market to sell into and a lead time of 2 years to get the next registration.  “That was the first and last time we let the manufacturing concept lead the regulatory concept and after that Rotam adopted a Policy of Regulatory Ability Evolution Dictates Everything”, said Bristow.

With the regulatory concept firmly back in the lead, Rotam focused on developing the light industrial complex as well as the synthesis.  An issue as unexpected as “being unable to find a bottle that did not leak” in China in the mid 1990’s, with importing empty bottles from UK not a viable option, lead to a very Rotam solution - “bring in a partner with the best expertise and build the plant”.  Rotam Boxmore Packaging Co., Ltd. (JRB), a high tech in-line fluorination bottle plant using patented airopak technology of Air Products USA, was born.

Bristow went on to explain how Rotam focused on the most technically difficult molecules, embracing technology challenges that forced the organisation to drastically strengthen laboratory R&D and build on a pharmaceutical heritage to push the limit of formulation development and clean room engineering for closed system production of high potency herbicides.    

Lastly he pointed out the future challenges facing a generic company in the crop sector and gave his opinion on how to prepare for them.

About The XVI International Plant Protection Congress
The XVI International Plant Protection Congress, in association with IAPPS (International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences) and the BCPC (British Crop Production Council) International Congress & Exhibition, took place from October 15-18, 2007 in Glasgow. With over 2,000 delegates in attendance representing over 90 nationalities, the Congress lived up to its billing as the world’s premier event for the crop production industry.

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