Clean Seed Capital Group (TSX-V:CSX) Inc aims to revolutionize agricultural production with new patented technology, which will improve yields, reduce input costs and reduce the environmental impact of modern planting and seeding.
The Canadian company is made up of a team of innovators and experts in the agricultural space and its flagship product, the result of years of research and investment, is its Smart Seeder MAX, a scalable seeding and planting machine, which combines sophisticated digital electronic metering and intuitive software to plant all commercial crop types with hyper accuracy setting a whole new standard for the space.
Put simply, the product can precision sow seeds, along with other items needed - supplements, fertilizers - all in one pass.
Significantly, in September this year, the company revealed it had closed a dealer distribution agreement with Deerland Equipment (representing John Deere) as a Clean Seed SMART Seeder MAX dealer with multiple outlets in key areas in Canada. It also recently announced that a brand-new facility in Saskatoon was on schedule to be occupied before the end of this year and will be the bedrock of its operations for both sales and operations in 2022. Proactive sat down with Lempriere to find out more about this innovative company.
Speaking to Proactive, CEO Graeme Lempriere didn't give precise sales figures but did reveal that further deals were in progress, and that the company is now kicking off the next phase of its sales and distribution push.
Proactive: What would you say is the operational focus at the moment for Clean Seed?
Graeme Lempriere: The operational focus at the moment is to execute on our business plan. We're opening our new facility in Saskatoon before the year is out in preparation for our 2022 order fulfillment and setting up our sales and service infrastructure.
For those who don't know, can you give a potted history of how the company started?
The vision of change was started by my father who was inspired as an engineer to develop a technology that would protect the soil surface and core nutrient structure and improve crop production through truly accurate metering of product into the ground.
After he made his case for change at the US Senate, I took over what he was working on 10 years ago to finish what he started as ill health prevented him from moving forward at that time. Coming from a corporate development and capital markets background, I assembled a strong team of industry experts and capitalized the next stage of development and evolution to what is now the Smart Seeder line of technologies.
We now have a world patented technology built from the ground up, all the way up to a full production technology that will have a profound impact on global food production - from the environmental impact side of things, from the micro-management of inputs, to saving massive input costs for our farms. Our new approach to how we should be seeding and planting our crops around the world will soon be the new industry standard in our view, echoed by industry experts.
Can you tell us about the company's SMART Seeder MAX and associated products and why they are so special?
The SMART Seeder products are unique because they're the only technology in the world that will micro-manage and deliver up to five different products on every single square foot of the field on every single row. I've best described it as the world's largest printer. Instead of ink, think seeds and nutrients. We can take in all the data that is prevalent now in agriculture, weather, soil nitrogen and all the related information that you have available today in order to make good planting decisions on the farm and actually leverage that data into action. We're the technology that actually executes, in high resolution, that input recommendation into the ground. When you put it all together, it's the world's most advanced Smart seeding technology. Our technology is patented worldwide and we've been building intellectual property layers of protection for this technology for years in preparation for this launch.
How come no one has come up with this idea before? Is it due to the technological advancements we have these days?
We were the first to conceptualize this radical advancement. When we first unveiled the concept and technology drive idea behind the technology in 2013, the lid came off the space and we inspired a whole new generation of synergistic ideas. At this point we had already filed for worldwide patent protection on the very foundation of our technology and the principles behind it. Nobody had really thought about changing anything, the same equipment had been operating for the last 30 years and no one was thinking outside the box, we were the first to even introduce Bluetooth connectivity at the time.
Not much had advanced on existing technology in the last 35/40 years at all. It's been the same process over and over, so it was ripe for change and radical advancement. I think that we were - in fact I know we were - the catalyst that ignited the new shift to high resolution, variable rate seeding and planting technology. We started this movement and, yes It took a great deal of time and effort to build this technology from the ground up to the finished product it is today but is well worth the effort and sacrifice.
The reasons why others aren't doing it is we have a group of patents protecting it. We have, however, issued our first license in the US to one company that is like-minded on what we were doing and is symbiotic in nature, which is maybe a reflection of the strength of our patents.
Our edge is simple - it's completely unique, revolutionary and needed. It's like when Tesla came out with their electric car, General Motors and everybody were like "it's not going to really catch on". Now, it's the largest car manufacturer in the world. This will catch on in the Ag tech space as it proves out results on the ground for the industry and global food production.
Can you outline your sales strategy over the next year or so?
Yes, we started on the dealership side of things by securing a major John Deere dealer as a leading distributor for our equipment. We're working with some other major dealer networks right now for the SMART Seeder Max and working directly with farmers ourselves through demonstrations, etc. We intend to continue presenting our technology at all the big farm shows in parallel with dealer network integration throughout 2022. Overseas, we are evaluating licensing and distribution opportunities of the technology in key markets also.
You mentioned earlier your new facility in Saskatoon that's due to be occupied before year-end. Can you tell us a bit more about that facility and what it means for the company?
This new facility is going to be the cornerstone, an anchor point, for our Canadian prairie operations. What's unique about our current approach is that we are an assembler of the finished product.
We're going to be assembling all of the parts, components of our technology in these buildings, so it's a very clean environment. We've elected to have joint venture partners and outsource components that come to a central location for assembly and distribution.
Farmers will be able to come and see their machine coming together and meet management and the support team behind the product. Without insulting the farmers, we're bringing more sophistication, attention, customer service and customer integration than anybody has before. It's a brand-new tech, it's all high end, and we also intend to deliver customer service and everything else in the same manner.
Agriculture was always the ugly cousin industry; people generally think farming is a dirty, boring business. We have made a very strong effort to bring it to the forefront of industry and demonstrate the importance of it, the environmental impact of it, and how we can leverage today’s data, and leverage that into the ground to produce stronger yields for all farmers while reducing input costs.
What else can investors expect in terms of news flow in coming months?
Growth, both here and aboard. We are working on some pretty significant stuff overseas that will demonstrate the scalability of our technology for all markets.
Clean Seed is going to be aggressively stepping out internationally with our technology because we have a deep conviction to deliver this seeding and planting solution and its benefits on a global scale for humanity. This technology sequesters more carbon than any other seeding technology, it keeps the soil surface structure stable, it limits the inputs and increases yields, it really is the cornerstone to a sustainable mass crop production system.
The whole process starts with the seeding of the crop and that is our expertise. If you don’t seed or plant properly, you don’t get the maximum out of your land, period.
Contact the writer at giles@proactiveinvestors.com