FARM chemicals company Imtrade Australia believes its new sales management team is poised to build on its 25 per cent per annum growth and challenge its major competitors.
FARM chemicals company Imtrade Australia believes its new sales management team is poised to build on its 25 per cent per annum growth and challenge its major competitors.
The Kwinana-based chemicals manufacturer said it was better placed to attack the market dominance of Nufarm and Farmoz after the appointment of three former Elders executives to its sales management team.
Imtrade currently holds around 3 per cent of the $2 billion Australian agricultural chemicals market.
"In terms of sales it's going to be a huge new direction," Imtrade managing director Ross Rainbird said.
"I think we'll see a big change in Imtrade and its culture, and also in its ability to penetrate some markets it never could.
"We've got a lot of products that we haven't really been marketing properly, so that's really what we're hoping the guys can improve."
Former Elders WA general manager David Jones will head the team as national sales manager, while Bevan Addison and Tim Boyes will be national technical manager and national product manager respectively.
"We believe that these guys can add more benefit to the whole business in the sense of being able to strategise sales, to strategise products," Mr Rainbird said.
"They've got a huge ability in procurement and sales, they've got a strong technical background and really good corporate links.
"We'll see our status with the corporates change dramatically, and we will start to participate in some of their business."
Mr Rainbird said Imtrade's production facilities at its Kwinana plant gave the company a competitive advantage.
"Most of the guys, including Farmoz, import it and sell it, so they're traders basically," he said.
"What separates us from the rest of the pack is we manufacture our own stuff, we have our own laboratory and we have our own R&D program."
The appointments come one month after Imtrade fully resolved its dispute with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.
The authority took legal action against Imtrade early last year, claiming that 47 of the company's products were not properly registered.
But the move to recall and deregister the Imtrade chemicals was rejected by the Federal Court, which ruled last September that the authority had acted unlawfully.
In a statement issued in late February, the two parties said they had reached an out-of-court settlement.
