Syngenta PPM continues to innovate

Christopher Gigley, left, and Marshall Gaster stand in the new Syngenta Crop Protection headquarters lobby, next to a structure that highlights the company’s mission. (Photo: PMP Staff)

From the March 2022 groundbreaking to the start of moving in from previous offices in March 2024, Switzerland-based manufacturer Syngenta invested in resources, technology — and, most importantly, people — for its new North American Crop Protection headquarters in Greensboro. N.C. This includes its industry-specific Professional Pest Management (PPM) business.

“It was important for Syngenta to stay in Greensboro, where it has had its roots since the 1960s with its legacy company, Ciba-Geigy,” says Kristen Oakley, Syngenta PPM market manager. “Our company employs a lot of the local community, and we support the community in many ways, from scholarships to partnering with the United Way, the American Heart Association, and other organizations.”

The new, 563,000-square-foot headquarters offers new office spaces and state-of-the-art laboratories. Oakley says the design focused on four factors: wellness, community, ergonomics and sustainability. This shines through in myriad ways, from ergonomic furniture in workspaces to a fitness center, spacious cafe and dining areas, and even an on-site physician’s office for employees and their families.

Syngenta Crop Protection’s new facilities were purpose-built to allow networking and collaboration. (Photo: PMP Staff)

During a recent headquarters tour, Oakley noted that the new facilities act as the center of a multi-building campus, bringing all businesses together under one roof. “It was designed with improved collaboration in mind,” she adds.

In addition to hot and cold research labs, the facility features a package testing lab, which simulates the types of environmental stresses that packages may suffer during shipping, handling, transportation and storage.

“We know items can be jostled by a bumpy road during delivery, for example,” Oakley says. “We have an on-site team that ensures our packaging minimizes damage to pallets, cases and of course, the actual product. They’re here from a product concept to fine-tuning the optimum way we ship and store existing products.”

Kristen Oakley stands outside Syngenta Crop Protection’s Customer and Community Experience Room, which was created for training, eduation and client consulting. (Photo: PMP Staff)

New for 2025

Speaking of Syngenta products, as noted in Pest Management Professional’s August issue (p. 22), the team has a new active ingredient (AI) in the works: isocycloseram. This broad-spectrum insecticide will be trademarked and marketed as Plinazolin® technology after it is registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Registration is expected early next year.

The technology can control insects by contact and ingestion to quickly stop feeding; in the professional pest control industry, it will first appear as a gel bait to control all major cockroach species, including German and American cockroaches (Blattella germanica and Periplaneta americana, respectively).

“It’s the first new active ingredient and mode of action in professional pest management industry in years,” says Marshall Gaster, head of marketing for Syngenta PPM. “It falls under Group 30 of the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee, or IRAC, and we have been granted reduced-risk designation with our cockroach gel bait formulation by the EPA.”

Oakley points out that it is rare to come across an AI that can essentially control pests across the board in such a low dose: “It is fast-acting, provides good residual activity and offers a new tool for managing resistance.”

People power

Information stations like this one are incorporated all around the new headquarters facilities. (Photo: PMP Staff)

Christopher Gigley, Syngenta PPM’s marketing communication lead, says that while the facility is state-of-the-art for research and development, marketing, manufacturing and fulfillment, it is all for naught without a great team behind it.

“We really are proud of the knowledge, experience and expertise we have in our team members,” he states.
Oakley agrees, noting, “At the end of the day, we have good products that work and good people behind those products.

We strive to be not just an industry manufacturer but an industry steward, as well.”

<p>The post Syngenta PPM continues to innovate first appeared on Pest Management Professional.</p>

from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/2024/11/11/syngenta-ppm-continues-to-innovate/
Sacramento CA