USA - Bayer to bring regional seed brands under Channel umbrella

Bayer announced it will be making some changes designed to provide an improved experience for its farmer-customers. Chris Turner, U.S. Country Division Head for Bayer, says the effort will offer an enhanced grower experience.

″What we’ll be doing is taking our ten regional brands that we have across the Corn Belt along with the Channel brand that people have grown to trust and rely on and merge those into one brand, which will be a new Channel brand experience. And what customers can rely on is that they will still have the local dealer that they have grown to trust, they’ll still have a Bayer representative, again, that they’ve built relationships with, and they trust as well. And we intend to continue to offer the varieties and hybrids from each of those brands that we’re bringing into the Channel brand, they’ll still be available as well as we move throughout 23 and also 2024.″

Turner says the evolution will enable Bayer to strengthen its dealer relationships and allow further investment in agronomic support and products that will benefit farmers.

″The question often comes in, can you provide more agronomic experience on my farm? And really what this strategy is revolving around is, one, a simplified message, but also an enhanced agronomic experience through additional agronomists in the field working with our dealer network as well as farmers, making the right product selections and making the right growing decisions. In addition to that, growers often think about our pipeline that’s coming, and it’s really the richest I’ve ever seen in my 25 years in the industry. And along with that richness comes complexity. And so, we’re not only servicing what we’re selling today and positioning on farm, but we’re also preparing for the future as well.″

The DEKALB and Asgrow brands are not impacted by this change. Turner adds the changes will increase Bayer’s commitment to providing farmers with the products they need.

″I know we’re in the midst of the planting season, I just want to make sure that farmers remain safe during that planting season. And secondly, that they continue to trust that we’re making the right decisions and that we’re keeping their interest best in mind in terms of simplifying how we come to them with a product offering, but also have consistency. And that consistency comes back to the people remaining in place, whether that be the dealer, a Bayer representative, and also the products that they’ve grown to trust and depend on as well.″

Learn more about this announcement here.