Kalyx Australia, Media Release, 31 October 2022
Kalyx Australia, a national agricultural business, announced it has completed its acquisition of Staphyt Research Limited’s New Zealand business; a move that sees the company grow its presence for the first time beyond Australian shores.
For over two decades now, Kalyx has been leading independent agricultural research in Australia with their national presence and operational excellence.
Over that time, they have helped their clients bring hundreds of new crop varieties, pesticides, fertilisers, and other such technologies to Australian famers.
“Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Kalyx. The New Zealand expansion represents a significant investment and milestone for our business as we continue to look for ways to improve levels of service to clients, many of which also operate in both countries.” said Ashley Bacon, Managing Director.
“We are thrilled to have Staphyt’s NZ research team join us. As all our clients know, success in this game is about having the right people in the right places. We are proud to say that we have the best people in NZ for the job and business will continue as usual for our clients across the Tasman for 2022-23.”
Staphyt has operated in New Zealand for over 20 years under the Peracto and more recently Staphyt brand. The company currently operates across three key locations for agricultural production with branches in Pukekohe, Hastings, and Ashburton.
It has conducted research across important horticultural and arable crops including potatoes, onions, vegetables, grape, pome, cereal and forage crops.
“We look forward to the opportunity of working with the motivated and research focused team in Kalyx Australia” said Jarrod Harvey, New Zealand Business Unit Manager.
“The added support and experience of our colleagues in Australia can give our clients confidence we can deliver high-quality, on-time contract research to meet their growing requirements”.
“We are very confident in the Kalyx take over. The Kalyx technical team has high expertise and provides quality services. Kalyx will continue with the entire Staphyt team [In New Zealand], honouring all our commitments and contracts with all our customers.” said Olivier Marchioro, CEO of Staphyt Group.
This extension of Kalyx is the next step in a year of significant growth for the company. In the last 6 months Kalyx has opened 4 new branches in Cairns, Bundaberg, Orange, and Melbourne.
These new locations provide an improved and diverse horticulture efficacy and GLP residue trial offering, with greater access to a variety of crops, including tropical fruits, sugarcane, and tree crops in the QLD region.
Kalyx’ National Horticulture and GLP Business Lead Matt Burley said, “The increased range of environments in which Kalyx now operate is what sets our business apart. Clients can feel confident that they can contract their research to Kalyx knowing we have the flexibility to locate any trial in the location that will produce the best data. In some cases, this means we can access key crops all year round to get new products to market sooner.”
The New Zealand arm of Kalyx will continue to operate in all locations under the capable management of Jarrod Harvey and his team. As with the rest of the Kalyx operation, the business will be centrally supported out of Australia by its existing management and administrative team.
Ashley noted that, “A key to the success of Kalyx has been its employee ownership – a model that we will be expanding to NZ. We appreciate that our clients place a lot of trust in Kalyx when contracting us to assist with their research programs.
“A big part of this relates to the stability that we believe local ownership provides. We’ve been in the business of field research for over 25 years, and we intend to be here for another 25, continuing to deliver the highest quality trials and best value for our clients.”
