Europe North News Summer Edition by Syngenta UK Limited

EAME Region Summer Issue

Europe North NEWS from the Commercial Organization

Forward thinking Summer in Europe North brings a host of customer activities – and with these, the chance to showcase our technology and solutions to growers. Speaking from Borgeby, James Barkhouse, Head Europe North, reflects on our recent Geographic Strategy Review and how teams across the territory are already putting elements of our strategy in action.

In this issue • Highlights from Cereals 2014 and Borgeby Fältdagar • Campaign Innovation Award Fuelling innovation in marketing campaigns

• Cereals End to End Preparing for our expansion in cereals

• Spotlight on leading change Andrew Aubert, Territory R&D Head Europe North

• The Good Growth Plan Biodiversity high on the European agenda

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Highlights from Cereals 2014 After months of careful planning and preparation, on June 11-12 the UK commercial teams joined over 26,000 visitors at the UK’s Cereals event in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. CEO Mike Mack and Regional Director Andrew Guthrie also attended the plot briefings and the main event, praising the efforts of those involved.

For a bird’s eye view of the event, watch the Highlights from Cereals video.

As the plot briefing tours kick off, Campaign Manager Melanie Wardle and Iain Hamilton, Field Technical Manager are on hand to talk about what features our customers can expect from our wheat and barley varieties and the technologies we have on offer.

HYVIDO® was again centre stage this year at Cereals. The UK is the first country to offer growers a CASH BACK YIELD GUARANTEE, and plans are underway to introduce this initiative to Belgium.

As the first visitors arrive on the stand, Ben Magri, New Farming Technologies Lead demonstrates the range of Syngenta nozzles to Mike Mack and Andrew Guthrie.

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Borgeby F채ltdagar: One face to the customer

Watch the Borgeby event video

For colleagues like Anne Kraggerud, Market Manager Norway, Borgeby is a chance to talk to visiting Norwegian growers and show our technology in action.

On June 24-25, we chased the clouds away in Sweden as the Nordics commercial teams put on a great show at the Borgeby field days. Our stand and plots attracted an impressive number of visitors, including specially planned tours with customers from each of the Scandinavian countries. And with the launch of HYVIDO in Denmark and Sweden this year, the teams were well equipped to talk to customers about their complete agronomic needs.

Taking advantage of our film crew at the event, Arto Markkula, Market Manager Finland, prepares to give customer presentations to camera in Finnish and Swedish on our key crop protection technology for potato. Our thanks to all colleagues who helped to produce new marketing videos at Borgeby this year!

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Campaign Innovation Award

Fuelling innovation in how we reach our customers The process around “Campaign Innovation Award Having a great customer experience lies at the center of our strategy, and optimizing how we reach our customers is essential to our success. When it comes to marketing campaigns, the scene in our industry is undoubtedly competitive, as companies try to emulate our integrated crop strategy. But it’s also dynamic: we see an increasing adoption of innovative approaches by our peers, such as direct marketing campaigns with an unexpected new twist or viral marketing campaigns that use digital media to spin off a discussion among customers. Recognizing new thinking

To meet this challenge, our commercial units in Europe North recently set their own Must Win Battle to fuel innovation in marketing campaigns by introducing a new Campaign Innovation Award. “The Award is about recognizing new thinking in the campaign development process,” explains Mark Hall, Head of Business Development. “It’s about sparking innovation and daring ourselves to try new approaches. And where we do succeed, it’s about sharing how we designed and executed a campaign, and what insights and impact we gained in the process.” All North Europe Campaign Managers and Customer Marketing Leads meet twice per year in Campaign Management Workshops to share best practice, discuss key campaigns common to them and develop more effective, efficient campaigns. This rhythm of meetings provides a focal point for teams to start to nominating campaigns for the Award at the autumn meeting, and present their campaign at the spring meeting for judging. “From the initial nomination, we provide some support to help teams prepare

Gerry Rijkers, Head of Customer Marketing

was good and resulted in nine campaign entries. The real wow effect came during the presentation to all the campaign managers. It was a great way to increase our awareness of other campaigns and the tools we can replicate in our own campaigns.

their campaign submission for the award,” says Annette Marcher, Head of Customer Marketing, Nordics and one of the panel members who judges the Award entries. “This supports the judging process, and prepares the teams to deliver a poster session at the autumn meeting. The session sparked very interesting discussions this year, and was a great chance for teams to learn from the experience of their colleagues.” In its first year, the panel scored entries according to creativity, uniqueness and the insight gained from the campaign. Annette adds: “Executional excellence and impact are also very important when it comes to marketing campaigns. The panel recognizes that campaigns

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are likely to be at different stages of delivery, so in this second year of the Award, we may look at additional criteria to help us to judge the diversity of entries.” This year the winning teams were from Benelux and the UK, so Annette looks forward to getting Nordics into the top three next year. “Brita Prejer recently joined me and Winnie Olsen in the Nordics Campaigns team,” says Annette. “And with Brita’s agricultural journalism experience she will no doubt help increase the competition with Benelux and the UK!” Contact: Annette Marcher, Head of Customer Marketing, Nordics

Judging panel James Barkhouse, Europe North Mark Hall, Europe North Will Holmes, UK Gerry Rijkers, Benelux Annette Marcher, Nordics

The call for entries for the 2014/15 Campaign Innovation Award kicks off at the Campaign Management Forum this autumn in the Netherlands.

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Winners of the 2014 Campaign Innovation Award 1st

HYVIDO – Integrated Crop Solution Campaign – UK Executional excellence

Awarded to members of the HYVIDO Campaign Team for their outstanding effort in implementing the first integrated crop solution in the UK. The team demonstrated excellence in piloting the Innovative HYVIDO CBYG campaign idea as a new and unique ICS offering to farmers, as well as executing the HYVIDO campaign across new and relevant platforms – both off- and online. Campaign team: Mark Britton, Christine Cottrell, Iain Anderson, Duncan Woodward, Will Holmes, Julian Fairhead, Roger Hodson, Michael Hudson, Pauline Ingram, James Taylor

2nd Operation Pollinator Version 2:0 – Benelux Innovative and courageous

Awarded to the Operation Pollinator Campaign team for an Innovative Crowd Funding approach that builds on the 2012 launch of Operator Pollinator in the Benelux, particularly for the courage they have demonstrated in approaching a wider audience as they attempt to improve biodiversity in Dutch farming. Campaign team: Michael van Baekel, Jan Bouwman, Michael Kester, Jan Romijn, Toon Musschoot, Maarten Homan, Mieke de Vries.

3rd

Milkytop Launch – Benelux

Classic campaign with a clear benefit-driven visual identity Given to the Milkytop Campaign Team for a well-thought through launch of Milkytop as a new silage corn variety – in close cooperation with channel partner Groeipartner. The campaign has a fresh visual identity, with a clear benefit drive and a memorable design that cuts through and works well across all executional elements. Campaign team: Marcel d’Hondt, Frans van Leeuwen, Kurt Goethals, Jacquelijne van den Berg

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Cereals End to End project

Supporting our Cereals expansion in EU North According to our territory strategy, cereals will be a key pillar in delivering our growth ambition in Europe North. Part of that growth is expected to come from our cereals seeds business, such as hybrid barley, malting barley and feed wheat.

organized organization, and adapt our ways of working. This was a big challenge, but also great opportunity as we had the chance to get in contact with our counterparts in other territories and work together to overcome any challenges we faced.”

To support this expansion, the EU North Cereals project team has been working with teams across Production & Supply, Finance and Commercial on the Cereals End to End project, to standardise key processes and provide greater visibility and coordination of our seeds operations.

“This redesign project was crucial to get our organization ready for the expected growth in the Cereals business,” Marcel continues. “One of the goals of the project was also to bring clarity and increase the financial benefit of the Cereals business. With the alignment between the countries, shared visibility on availability and possible use of shared processors, we will be ready to meet the expectations of our customers and our internal stakeholders.”

Ada Van Galen, Territory Supply Manager explains: “As an end to end approach, this project links through all the processes from when we start producing the seed, to cleaning and treating the seed – all the way to the final delivery to the customer. By standardising the way we work across the organisation, will have better visibility of what seed is available, when new seed will become available, and the quality of the seed we are providing to customers.”

Redesign for growth

“The Cereals End to End project highlighted our many different ways of working,” says Marcel Korse, S&OP and Integration Lead Europe North. “We came from locally oriented Cereals teams and had to turn into a centrally

While the Cereals End to End project went live on July 7, the EU North Cereals project team are continuing to work on key areas such as an in-season planning tool and governance model to enable teams to compare the number of confirmed seed orders with the seed processing plan and forecast. This will help to better estimate associated activities, such as seed storage requirements and inventory – areas which, as we know, can impact our profitability as a business. Contact: Ada Van Galen, Territory Supply Manager

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I feel the Cereals End to End project has strengthened the relationships between Customer Services and Production & Supply. It has provided both teams much needed clarity and a process to successfully manage scalability and increased demand for cereal seeds in the UK, not just for the future but also crucially for the coming season. With all the departments working together we have made significant changes in systems and processes in a tight time frame. Now for the ultimate test – a successful 2014 HYVIDO season!

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Kier Ferrie, Customer Services Manager.

Spotlight on leading change

Andrew Aubert,

Territory R&D Head Europe North What is Biological Assessment?

Biological Assessment (BA) serves the biological study needs of R&D to enable product pipeline evaluation, registration and commercialization. In simple terms it prepares to deliver Syngenta’s future portfolio.

Andrew started with the company 23 years ago as Territory Manager with Ciba Geigy in South Australia. Following the merger between Ciba and Sandoz, he was appointed Queensland State Manager based in Brisbane, and took on various project management and business development roles working across Australasia. With the commercial integration Andrew was appointed the Australasian Territory Head of R&D and Solutions Development until December 2013, when he joined our Territory as R&D Head North Europe. Andrew is currently leading the Biological Assessment transformation project in Europe North.

Leading the BA transformation in Europe North The Biological Assessment Leadership Team in Europe North, currently includes: • Andrew Aubert, Territory R&D Head North Europe • Beth Hall, Product Development Lead North Europe • Julie Palmer, Head Nurseries, Seed Production and Processing (NSPP) North Europe • Peter Acda, who is addition to his role as Enkhuizen Site Head and Transformation Manager, was recently appointed R&D Infrastructure Manager Benelux Further appointments to the BA Leadership Team in North Europe will be made in due course.

Further information • Appointments to the Biological Assessment Organization Europe North • Background to the EAME Biological Assessment transformation • Appointments to the EAME product Biology Leadership Team

BA has a wide scope of responsibility including BA Technologies, Nurseries including seed production, Cell Biology, Biotic and Abiotic Stress Management. As well as plan, conduct and report on biological studies for Crop Protection, Seeds and Integrated Solutions, we work with colleagues in Site Management and Infrastructure. We have colleagues working in BA in Europe North at nearly every site in the territory.

What changes are you currently leading?

The global BA organization was formed in 2011 by bringing together the legacy groups of Crop Protection Field Biology and Seeds Regional R&D Operations. Quite simply BA became the largest organization within R&D. We are now in the process of driving the full integration of the BA organization worldwide to better meet the requirements of our business partners and support Syngenta’s strategy. A key aim of the BA transformation project is to improve the scientific quality and business value of R&D activities in support of Syngenta’s integrated crop strategy. So we will work to improve the interface between Biological Assessment, other R&D teams (such as Crop R&D and Product Biology) and Commercial – creating a seamless transition of knowledge and idea creation between these functions. This will enable us as a company to build our commercial market foresight and ultimately deliver better solutions for growers.

What other benefits do you expect from this transformation?

By integrating our BA activities, we will build dedicated teams with specialized skill sets across each of the BA functions – and these teams will be part of a wider regional network. This will help our colleagues to more easily connect with others across Syngenta, as well as offer them greater long-term development opportunities. We also have opportunities to work more closely with Production & Supply to help improve the company’s ability to balance demand and supply processes that we are involved in, as well as helping the business to more flexibly react to short-term opportunities.

What interaction do you have with the Commercial organization?

In Europe North I am working as the Senior R&D leader to partner with the commercial organization. I am also the primary contact for R&D at territory level to support improved alignment with Commercial, and better integration and accountability for R&D in the territory.

When can we expect to hear more about the BA transformation project?

Since my appointment we have announced new members of the North Europe BA Leadership team (see links to the left). Over the coming weeks we will announce further dedicated Territory leads for the remaining BA functions (Functional Planning, Biological Data Analytics, Trialing and BA Technologies). These leads will create clear points of contact for Commercial, Crop R&D and Product Biology going forward. We will also be visiting a number of Territory sites over the coming weeks and months to meet colleagues and learn more about current BA activities in their area. Later this year, we will take part in a Territory BA roadshow, to provide an update on the BA transformation project and give colleagues the chance to ask questions and give feedback.

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The Good Growth Plan

Our commitments to make a difference The Good Growth Plan sets Syngenta’s commitments to address the critical challenges the world faces in feeding a growing population. Since the global launch, teams across Europe North have developed a Territory implementation plan to focus on initiatives that will demonstrate a measurable contribution to sustainable agriculture and food security.

Making crops more efficient One of our global commitments is to make crops more efficient by increasing the average productivity of the world’s major crops by 20% without using more land, water or inputs. “A natural starting place for us in Europe North is cereals,” explains Jan Bouwman, Sustainable Agriculture and Stewardship Manager, EAME. “Our HYVIDO hybrid barley varieties are known to provide growers with greater yield potential over conventional varieties and at the same input levels HYVIDO hybrid barley will give more yield per unit input.”

Burgers voor Bijen (Citizens for Bees) www.burgersvoorbijen.nl Earlier this year Syngenta launched this innovative crowd funding project in Benelux. Using an online platform, members of the public can look at profiles of farmers who are “ambassadors” of sustainable intensive agriculture and sponsor them to grow flowering margins on their farms, compensating for loss of income from productive land. The aim is to help transform traditional agricultural landscapes into places where food production and biodiversity can co-exist and enable both the public and farmers to see the benefits of ecological habitats to farming and the environment.

Pollinator revival In the UK, Syngenta has partnered with the Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE) and seed suppliers Kings to provide around 400 seed packs of annual wildflower mix. Purchasing the £35 seed pack (€42) gives farmers access to full agronomic support to help them to establish a valuable new ecological habitat. In 2014-15 this project will result in 400 hectares of additional flowering margins in Europe North.

Contact: Michael van Baekel, Digital Marketing and New Farming Technologies Manager “Using a network of reference farms and plots in the UK, Syngenta is monitoring soil data, crop yield and quality, and inputs, to provide tangible data on the contribution this crop can make thanks to our technology and growing protocols. Our intention is to expand this HYVIDO monitoring project in the Benelux next year.” As part of the efficiency pillar of The Good Growth Plan, Jan is also working with teams across Benelux on initiatives in vegetables with the Belgium food processor Pinquin and a Dutch project in pome fruit (apple and pear), where in addition to yield, quality and inputs, we are also looking at reducing chemical residues.

Helping people stay safe

Read the full press release here Contact: Belinda Bailey, Environmental Initiatives Manager

Syngenta is committed to training 100,000 farmers and distributors across the EAME region to use our products safely and reach many more through road shows, field days and smart phone technology. In Europe North we are monitoring the training we provide on a range

of areas including safe use, safe application, drift reduction, preventing water contamination, biodiversity enhancement and bee protection to ensure farmers and distributors have the best possible support in these areas.

Helping biodiversity flourish Across Europe, Syngenta has committed to working with growers on 1 million hectares of farmland to provide nutrition and habitat for pollinators (and beneficial insects) on which our food depends. In Europe North, we are building on the success our decade-long initiative Operation Pollinator. Look out for further updates and insights on The Good Growth Plan on mySyngenta and www.goodgrowthplan.com Contact: Jan Bouwman, Sustainable Agriculture and Stewardship Manager, EAME

The Good Growth Plan

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Biodiversity and you While Operation Pollinator continues to boost the number of pollinating insects on commercial farms, we recently challenged all employees in Europe North to encourage biodiversity in you own garden and many of you responded to this call. To see what your colleagues have been doing, please join the Facebook group Biodiversity and you.

An invitation for future collaboration Hear from James Barkhouse, Head Europe North, and David Youle, Head of Biological Sciences, as they reflect on how The Good Growth Plan gives us a different lens to connect with external stakeholders – particularly around opportunities for future collaboration.

Join and win our summer competitions

Watch the video

This summer, share with us the most original or beautiful picture where you experienced biodiversity at its best on our Biodiversity and You Facebook group. To submit an entry please include the words “@photo competition, biodiversity for me is…” adding your description of what biodiversity means to you. Alternatively you can send your entry and description via email. The deadline for entries is September 1, 2014. The three most unique photos will be awarded a prize! Especially for the little ones we are organizing a summer coloring in competition. Print the artwork and challenge your child to join in the fun – closing date is September 1, 2014. Toy vouchers are up for grabs!

• More details on how to join the competition

For good social media etiquette, please take a moment to see Syngenta’s social media guidelines

• Artwork coloring in competition for children

• See Syngenta’s simple rules of engagement

• Details on collection points for children artwork

• Watch Syngenta’s social media video

• Biodiversity and You Facebook group

• See how to check/change your Facebook privacy settings