Meet LidoChem, Inc founder
– Don J. Pucillo – Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of LidoChem. Inc. This month’s Performance Superstar features a conversation with company founder Don Pucillo.
How did you decide to get into the specialty fertilizer business? Pucillo: After graduating from Wagner College in NJ in 1976, and working for BASF, I took a position with a NY subsidiary of a European water-soluble phosphate producer, Prayon-Rupel, and learned about specialty fertilizer production and input sales. I loved the business, but when the New York office closed, I discovered my entrepreneurial spirit and decided to go out on my own. At that time there were only two producers of high-quality water-soluble phosphates. I believed if I could secure the source of products, price them more competitively and serve my customers well, I could build a sustainable business. On May 26, 1981, together with my wife Lisa, we started LidoChem, Inc. in the second bedroom of our home and, with the $2,500 we had saved, bought a desk, chair, business cards, stationary and a telex machine. I flew to Belgium and negotiated an
in the USA, and I was ready for my next
and soil microbes;
challenge.
• Respect the contribution of each
What are your goals for LidoChem?
component of the ecosystem through
agreement with Prayon-Rupel to act
Pucillo: My guiding philosophy is to be
as their exclusive sales agent in the
“Partners In Growth” with our custom-
USA. During subsequent years I made
ers, helping them solve problems and
several trips to Europe and secured
bringing value in everything we do. The
exclusive rights from other manufac-
overall mission of LidoChem and the
turers of raw material that my custom-
Performance Nutrition Division is to:
a comprehensive Ecosystem Management approach that allows for the optimalization of chemical fertilizer and pesticide applications while correcting the “stressors” that inhibit plant performance and vitality; • Delivering value to our customers
ers used. Within three years of dogged
• Develop & market economical, effec-
determination, we had captured about
tive and “greener” products & programs
33% of the USA market. After ten years,
for crops, turf and ornamental fertility
Prayon-Rupel opened their own office
and disease control utilizing natural
What do you see as highlight to your success?
resources to provide nutrition for plants
Pucillo: Recognizing that with change
56
each and every time.
Golf Central • Volume 22, Issue 2
