Seed giant Limagrain arrives in Fort Collins

Group Limagrain, the biggest producer of crop seeds and crop research in Europe, has opened a subsidiary in Colorado with an office in Fort Collins.

Limagrain Cereal Seeds is the first American office for Group Limagrain. The company will focus on wheat research and market its seeds under the LG brand.

Frank Curtis, executive vice president and COO for the local office, said the company chose Fort Collins because of the extensive wheat research going on at Colorado State University and because of the citys quality-of-life reputation that will help recruit the best talent for its local operations.

"We wanted to find a town where people will want to live, because were going to recruit talented people from all over and it should be a place where people will enjoy living," Curtis said.

Limagrains office is located at 3515 Richards Lake Road in north Fort Collins.

Curtis said Limagrains business strategy is to create and market proprietary wheat seed varieties for professional seed producers, who then market the seeds to their customers. The Fort Collins office will focus on developing and supplying wheat seed for producers in Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, Nebraska and Washington.

Wheat - both winter and spring - is one of Colorados biggest field crops, especially in the states northeastern section.

Curtis said he is hiring research and development staff and sales and marketing representatives. He said the office will eventually employ 20 to 25 people by the end of 2011.

Group Limagrain was founded as a French farmers cooperative in 1947. The company has 6,000 employees and is the largest seed company in the European Union.