AgroPages-Cropnosys India’s related companies acquire Grosvenor Chemicals in UK-Agricultural news

Cropnosys India’s related companies acquire Grosvenor Chemicals in UK

Cropnosys India (Private) Limited’s two related companies in the UK, Widecover Ltd and JT Agro Ltd, have collectively made a purchase of Grosvenor Chemicals Ltd (a Huddersfield-based chemicals manufacturer in UK - part of the Whyte Group of companies), with all operations and assets transferring to the new owner who will trade as JT Grosvenor Limited. Business advisory firm Quantuma (the Administrators of the site for one year) completed the sale of Grosvenor Chemicals.

Grosvenor Chemicals was part of the Whyte Group of companies which fell into administration last year, prior to which it made chemical products for a variety of sectors across the UK, including the agrochemical, pharmaceutical, household and industrial markets.

After the deal, the chemical formulation site will be focused on agrochemicals only, running with all its downsized employees which were previously working for Grosvenor Chemicals. The facility comes with a wealth of experienced human resource which will be the key to the new organization’s success going forward.

Currently, JT Grosvenor Ltd, are revamping and refurbishing the site. It has separate Herbicide, Fungicide & Insecticide rooms for Liquid formulations and filling lines; ample space for storage of raw materials, technical Actives and packaging. Additionally, a separate QC and development lab for testing/improving formulations is being targeted for upgradation.

Cropnosys India (Private) Limited :

Cropnosys India Ltd. was started by Mr. Gurvinder Singh in Mumbai. It was set up to initiate Technical Active Ingredient manufacturing in India for 2 key AIs to start with. Fluazinam Technical (manufacturing since 2008) and Dicamba Technical (manufacturing since 2015) were Cropnosys India’s first two Active Ingredients which they have been manufacturing for export purposes only.

In 2017, they introduced a third Active Ingredient, Flufenacet Technical which is a herbicide mainly used in Europe for black-grass control; and now Cropnosys India is the largest generic producer of Flufenacet Technical and Fluazinam Technical in India, which is manufactured at their Multipurpose Plant in Vapi along with a few other Active Ingredients (all Technically Equivalent in EU) and Intermediates.

In 2018, Cropnosys India also entered the Domestic Indian market with their own brands in technology partnership with UK company, Cropthetics Ltd., giving bespoke packaging and quality of formulation for Indian farmers.

In 2019, Cropnosys India invested in a new filling line for formulations since they wanted to be in control of the packaging quality; invested into more registrations globally; and diversified into other business segments like Biologicals, Crop Nutrition, Public Health and Wood Treatment. Now Cropnosys India operates from its new head office in Bengaluru, India; sales office New Delhi and factory in Vapi, Gujarat with more than 250 employees.

Widecover Ltd. :

Mr. Gurvinder Singh started his own Agchem trading company in the UK in 1996, called Widecover Ltd. It has been trading (and still is trading) in Technical Actives and Intermediates for 23 years, connecting Indian and Chinese suppliers with European and American customers. The turnover for FY 2018-19 was reported as £18million ($22million) from its trading office located in Berkshire, UK.

JT Agro Ltd. :

JT Agro Ltd., another trading arm owned by Mr. Gurvinder Singh, started to invest in full EU registrations in 2015, mainly targeting Central Europe (UK, Germany, Poland and Ireland). Today, JT Agro Ltd holds 10 registrations in 4 countries with investments of 30 more registrations in 11 countries.

For each market, their vision is to not only offer off-patent generic products to the distributor but also guarantee continuous supply with support of Active Ingredients from Cropnosys India. Cropthetics Ltd’s (a marketing arm of JT Agro, 100% subsidiary) first year of sales was in 2018 and are forecasting double revenue year-to-year until 2021. The aim is to establish the Cropthetics’ brands in each market they sell.

All the related companies’ operations are distinct verticals of businesses in themselves and operate as separate profit centers. The customers for each business are assured utmost confidentiality, whatever be the area of engagement, ie; technical/intermediate sales or formulated products engagement.