Locations -- Bayer's Formula: Two Sites

Facilities When Bayer CropScience sprouted nine months ago from Bayer AG's acquisition of Aventis CropScience, something unusual in economic development happened. Bayer's crop-protection business group designated not one, but two principal locations for its North American operations. And the places it named, Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Kansas City, Mo., were communities in which Bayer and Aventis already did business. Investments were retained. Research Triangle Park, which had hosted Aventis CropScience's North American headquarters, is now the headquarters site for Bayer CropScience, with general management, administrative, marketing and regulatory activities based in the 7,000-acre business complex in north-central North Carolina. Meanwhile, Kansas City, which has been the headquarters for Bayer's NAFTA-region crop protection business, is Bayer CropScience's core technology center. It oversees manufacturing and formulation operations and some R&D activities. In addition, the company's U.S. regional sales offices are being relocated from several places around the U.S. to Kansas City, Mo., which is right across the border from Kansas City, Kans. Corporate Strategy "Our overall strategy for long-term growth is best supported by our approach of selecting two principal sites to meet the business needs of our new company," said Jochen Wulff, chairman of the management board for Bayer CropScience, when the selections were announced in February. "We need to secure the success of the ongoing business operations of both companies, which can only be achieved for the immediate future by making available the core competencies and resources of both sites." At Research Triangle Park, "we will have a modern infrastructure situated among a number of other well-known research-based companies such as ours," stated Emil Lansu, the regional head of Bayer CropScience in North America. He said Research Triangle Park was a location where the company can readily attract and retain top quality employees. "We also determined that the Kansas City area is the right place to pursue the new company's goal of becoming a leader in bringing innovative solutions to American agriculture through new technology and manufacturing," said Lansu. Kansas City's life sciences initiative, a community effort begun in 1999 is one of the pluses Bayer cites. It "opens doors for us to some of the best laboratories and leading scientists in the country," said Lansu. Bayer CropScience's NAFTA-region manufacturing also will be directed from Kansas City, one of two manufacturing centers for Bayer's crop-protection business worldwide. Locations profiles selected siting and facility strategies by manufacturing companies. Send submissions to Senior Editor John S. McClenahen at [email protected].