Briefly discuss Matt Fryer (Background and Managing Director Arysta LifeScience East Africa)
I was born into a farming community in South Africa, and my love for farming, nature and the outdoors started as far back as I can remember.
After completing my BSC Agric in 2002, I went on to work for a small crop protection company, Gap Chemicals, based in Kwazulu Natal and focused on Sugarcane. The small size of the company resulted in me being exposed to all aspects of running a successful business and this quickly revealed yet another passion I have for customer service.
In 2008 I joined Arysta LifeScience South Africa as a Key Account Manager and in addition to my deliverables I took on active roles in the S&OP process, demand planning and had a short stint of looking after the Southern Africa export business. In 2014 I was appointed Commercial Manager for South Africa, mainly as a support role to the Commercial Director, and was responsible for forecasting, pricing, stock distribution and allocation. In early 2015 I was offered the incredible opportunity to move to Nairobi. Having spent my entire career being based in South Africa, it was an easy decision to make to move here and embark on this new leadership challenge.
How would you describe your first year as the Head of Arysta Lifescience East Africa? Are you passionate about what you do?
The first year as Head of East Africa has been exciting, challenging and rewarding. I see East Africa having tremendous potential, but to achieve self-sufficiency and realise this potential, food security needs to be at the top of government’s agenda and from what I’ve seen so far, it is. I’m very passionate and proud about being part of the solution in delivering food security to the region.
Moving to a new country and market can be daunting, but I was fortunate enough to be joining a very welcoming and professional team. They really helped make the transition a smooth one. To make matters more challenging we were faced with the purchase and integration of Arysta, Chemtura and Agriphar into one entity. With the hard work and commitment of the team, not only did the integration go seamlessly but we were able to still achieve a 100% growth rate in 2015.
Year one was focused on improving our operating systems, making sure back office functions supported the business growth and consolidating and optimising the team on the ground. We achieved this and at the same time successfully integrated the three legacy companies into one face to the customer. In order to support the growth process that the region committed to, the Eastern Africa management team leveraged best practice from southern Africa and set up the 1st Strategic Agenda workshop in early 2016. Sixteen members of the East African team met in the Nairobi office to embrace the challenge. The Strategic Agenda will be our road map to achieving the 2016 Financial Targets, and at the same time being compliant and looking after the interests of our customers, the organisation, our employees, neighbouring communities and the environment. In this process, we identified key initiatives that need to be implemented to ensure short term targets are met, while remaining sustainable in the long term.
What is your vision for Arysta Lifescience East Africa?
Arysta LifeScience has a very strong presence in Africa and is recognized as the market leader in Southern and West Africa. Our positions in South and West Africa resulted from significant acquisitions and then subsequent organic growth. East Africa is the exception and our growth was started from a low base and relied on organic growth, that was until last year and the acquisitions of Chemtura and Agriphar. Although out footprint is still relatively small, we have increased our team from 19 people in 2014 to the current team of 35 and have more than doubled our revenue over the same period.
Our vision for East Africa is to be recognized as one of the leading Crop Protection companies, with an emphasis on customer service and product stewardship.
What are your top priorities?
We have both short and long-term priorities. The short term priorities include continuous improvement of processes and procedures, updating our operating systems and to maintain a motivated and empowered team that is passionate about the business and the industry they work in. We pride ourselves on customer service and this will always be a top priority.
The long term priority is to remain at the forefront of technology and make sure our products and services remain relevant and up to date with the industry.
In a nutshell describe Arysta Lifescience East Africa products and services to the farmers
To ensure our short term growth out focus has been on bringing new registrations to the market, maximizing the sales and distribution of our existing range and 3rd party product distribution on behalf of multinationals and J Makers. We have a balanced range of products catering for all market segments.
Large scale commercial farmers in the row crop and ornamentals sectors have been using our products such as Evisect, Silwet, Levo, Kalach, Floramite, Sigma Combi, Satunil, Proplant and Orthene for a number of years and these are well known and established brands. Recently we introduced new active ingredients to the market such as Teppeki (flonicamid), which is a very effective insecticide with a good IPM profile and Topcane (amicarbazone) which is a pre and post emergence herbicide for long term residual weed control in sugarcane. These products are distributed and serviced by our key partners, but at the same time we have on the ground presence to ensure product stewardship and to create additional demand.
In late 2014, we appointed a new Retail Market team, under the leadership of Patrick Amuyunzu. Products such as Cuprocaffaro, Kalach, Orthene, and Folimat are important products in this segment. This is an area of the business that we will continue to invest in as the small scale sector represents the greatest area of land farmed in the region. Small scale farmers are becoming more sophisticated and technically astute, and they are demanding the latest technology to improve their yields and we intend to remain part of their solution.
As part of the Chemtura acquisition, we now have a range of seed treatment products in the region and updating this range will be a priority in the future. We also distribute Public Health products in the region for Syngenta, focused on Malaria vector control.
Briefly discuss the Arysta Lifescience East Africa team
Arysta Lifescience East Africa has a professional, qualified and experienced team that are passionate about what they do. I am very pleased with the team we have on the ground and the management team. We have plans to expand the team even further and last month we employed an R&D Manager in Ethiopia. We have identified this country as a key market for future growth.
We have offices in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and opened an office in Addis Ababa in 2015. We also service Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda from Nairobi.
Lately we have seen a more aggressive Arysta Lifescience East Africa, what can you attribute this to?
Two years ago Arysta Lifescience embarked on a 5 year growth plan in East Africa. It identified key factors to be implemented in order to secure our planned growth in the region. Arysta’s global acquisitions of GBM and Goemar gave us a head start in the biosolution and crop nutrition space. Unfortunately this market is not regulated and there are so many products being marketed in this space that do not deliver the promised results and have gone some way in tarnishing the image of this group of products. However, our products are backed up by global and local scientific data along with replicated trials showing significant yield increases.
With these products plus the acquisition of Chemtura, Agriphar and Arysta by PSP, the growth plan is delivering the results and justifying further investment in the territory. We now have a greater product range, more experienced staff and improved capacity to transact with big customers.
Are you intending to expand your products range and market, what factors that are you considering in making that choice?
Yes, we have a very active R&D pipeline and are always looking for new molecules to develop and register as well as being the preferred distributor for 3rd party products.
The most critical factors when choosing products to develop in-house is their long term future, customer needs and to fill the gaps in our product range. We cannot afford to invest in products with a limited shelflife due to factors such as product toxicities and pending molecules limitations.
Where do you think the most significant growth will occur in the company in the next few years? What new competition are you expecting then?
I think the most significant growth will come from the newly entered markets like Ethiopia, and especially in the Biosolutions space. The greatest competition and threat will come from new market entrants that have no investment in the countries, questionable registration data, low operating costs, no product training and support and the only service they offer is low price. Although these businesses have proven to be unsustainable, they disrupt the market and drive down prices. Some farmers see this as a benefit, but cheap products often come at a price. Crop Protection accounts for +/-5% of a farmers input costs, but a mistake can cost him 100% of his yield. Unfortunately this risk is often overlooked when a purchase decision is made.
What’s the biggest challenge YOU feel your company faces, and how do you inspire your employees to meet it head on?
One of the biggest challenges we face is internal change in our organization. We have had 3 owners in the past 8 years and with that comes new cultures, expectations, ways of working, reporting lines and structures. Another challenge is to have balanced growth and sticking to good business practices. The lure of an easy sale is often followed by debt problems, a sale in not complete until the money is in the bank!
One of my only disappointments since moving to East Africa has been experiencing a culture of non-payment of debt. This has definitely been one of our growing pains and lessons have been learnt. We have now consolidated our customer base and will only work with reputable and reliable customers in the future. I continuously remind the team to embrace change and remain motivated.
Lately we have seen numerous acquisitions and mergers globally. Where do you see the agrochemical sector globally in the next 5 and 10 years from now? How are you prepared for this change in the industry?
One thing I have learnt at Arysta Lifescience since joining the company is that change is inevitable and learned to embrace it. Arysta Lifescience has already been through a number of acquisitions and mergers so I expect this to be the pattern in the future. “Bigger is better” seems to be the global trend in all industries and Crop Protection Industry is no exception. I expect this trend to continue as history has a tendency to repeat itself.
There is always opportunity in these acquisitions and mergers. New entities are often required to divest in products due to competition laws and Arysta Lifescience should be well positioned to invest in these products if the opportunity arises. Larger companies are often slower to react to market changes and decisions take a long time to be rubber stamped. There has always been a spirit of entrepreneurship in Arysta Lifescience and this culture empowers local leadership to make local decisions that will improve their business. If we are able to maintain this culture, then the future will remain bright for us.
What is your personal work ethic, and how does this affect the company culture?
I like to have processes and procedures in place and am generally systematic in the way I approach things. When a company starts off small and experiences fast growth, it is often processes and procedures that are overlooked. Once these are in place, then my personal leadership style is to empower management to make decisions.
I do not like to micro manage people as there are more important strategic considerations to focus on. I have an open door policy and a good working relationship with the team. I’m very open to new ideas as long as they have been well thought through and make financial sense.
What decisions have you made in your career that you look back on and feel were mistakes, and what have you learned from them?
I have no real regrets in my working career to date. The one lesson I have learnt is not to procrastinate on making the right decisions. Go with your gut feel and don’t over analyse every situation, make a decision and run with it.
Discuss the most pivotal moments in your career that you either learned from and/or that got you where you are?
I would say that starting off my career in a small company and being exposed to all aspects of running a successful business was critical to laying a solid foundation for my future growth. Another quality that I learnt during my career is to back yourself and to put up your hand when it comes to taking on new challenges and additional responsibility. Hard work pays off and if you deliver results, you get noticed and recognized. People that sit in the back corners of the office, who are not willing to participate or move out of their comfort zones do not get recognized.
Describe your ordinary day? Do you have enough personal time?
I had to commute between South Africa and Kenya for the first 9 months due to work permit delays and this was quite tough on my personal life as I was away from my amazing wife and children for up to 2 weeks at a time. Now that we are based in Nairobi, the family is a lot more settled and happy.
I generally wake up at 6am and leave for the office at 7am. I am fortunate enough to have a driver so I use the time in the car to catch up on emails and plan my day. Most days are spent in the office or meeting with customers and suppliers in and around Nairobi. In future I plan to spend a lot more time in the field visiting customers to hear first-hand what challenges they face, the direction that various industries are moving in and to assist where I can. I try leave the office by 4pm to avoid peak hour traffic. Again I use this time to catch up on emails and attend conference calls. I have two young children and by getting home by 5pm, it gives me time to spend with them before bed time. It is important to have a balance between work and personal life, but often it is work that takes priority. As they say, “a happy wife, is a happy life” so it is critical to have that balance between. I have an understanding family who support me unconditionally and I’m very grateful for that.
Give your final comments
I have really enjoyed my time so far in East Africa and it has given me a much greater perspective on agriculture in Africa. Coming from South Africa which is dominated by large commercial farms, it is great to see the level of expertise and sophistication of the small scale farmers in East Africa. Food and water security is becoming more and more challenging due to climate change and a growing population. Farmers need to produce greater yields per unit land to feed the expanding population and being part of the solution by giving farmers the tools to protect their crops and increase yields is a very fulfilling experience.