After the death of Alltech founder Pearse Lyons, his son and successor Mark Lyons encouraged the Alltech team to read “Founders Mentality,” a book about how companies grow.
“When companies grow, oftentimes they get bureaucratic, they get stodgy, they get stuck in their ways,” says Mark Lyons. “Alltech has always been kind of a maverick company, pushing the envelope by thinking about things in a different way. We wanted to maintain that, but at scale.”
Blending the Secret Sauce
Growing a global business while keeping that speed of innovation isn’t easy, Lyons admits. But it’s been the “secret sauce” in light of the 25 acquisitions the company has made since 2011, including Hubbard Feeds and Ridley Feed Ingredients. Recent U.S. hires Andy Rash and Mark Hulsebus agree that’s what drew them in.
“What attracted me the most are the firm tactical opportunities. The vertical alignment of being basic in specialty ingredients, basic in premix and micro ingredient distribution, and in compound feeds is a unique position,” says Rash, general manager of Alltech’s U.S. swine business.
But he points out it’s the soft tactics – the right talent, collaboration, engagement – that help deploy the story further.
“I sometimes say, ‘we won’t be beat by a lesser story told better.’ What I saw was a great, deployable story that needed to be told better and executed within the commercial pork industry,” Rash says.
The alignment of the firm and soft tactics results in efficiency and the ability to perform, Lyons explains.
“When a customer has an issue, we can bring that back in-house, and we can innovate and create new technologies or a different way of approaching something,” Lyons says. “I think that flexibility is really important. As businesses grow, you have to constantly think about how you can simplify your processes to make things clearer. Whether it’s an acquisition of a business or acquisition of talent, you have to be humble enough and open enough to learn from others’ ideas.”
Innovation that Solves Problems on the Farm
For example, the company has had a product on the market for years under the Hubbard Feeds that focuses on reducing the farrowing duration and in turn, reduces stillborns.
“When I started with Alltech, I realized that we also had another product, that had a mode of action, research and technical background around similar concepts. Thus, we had a unique opportunity to combine technologies and develop a stronger value proposition: Triad.”
Triad is a feed additive specially formulated to aid the parturition process and ultimately improve sow throughput.
Triad was officially launched at World Pork Expo. This product is focused on reducing stillborn incidence and improving pig livability. Rash says our research has shown a reduction of stillborn pigs up to 0.3 of a pig per litter. In addition, peer-reviewed research has suggested that supplementation of such compounds in combination can also boost the number of wean pigs per sow.
“When you are farrowing over two times per sow per year, and if you look at a weaned pig’s value today, the ROI that investment can make is profound,” he says. “Now the cool part of this is because we had two technologies that we combined in concept; we were able to bring it to producers fast. We bench tested, production tested and commercially trialed in six months. I’ve never seen a product launched in six months in my life.”
The product goes to market in two package sizes. The top-dressing size is a 3- to 5-day pre-farrowing product. It also comes in a package size where it can be blended into transition diets. Effective during short feeding intervals, the company says Triad supports sows during parturition and lessens pre-wean mortality, driving more pigs and more pounds long-term.
“Helping producers keep more pigs they work so hard to produce in the production chain is a great challenge to address,” Rash says. “The industry makes such a large investment in total pigs born, but focusing on pigs weaned is the real opportunity.”
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The Most-Asked Question at the 2023 World Pork Expo
