Syngenta Picks N.C. For Crop Division

BT Catalyst,  Dec, 2000  

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Greensboro was recently chosen as the U.S. headquarters for Syngenta Crop Protection, a division of the newly-formed Syngenta AG of Switzerland.

Greensboro competed with Wilmington, Del., for the division headquarters site, but local and state government presented a strong case that included an incentives package and other assistance.

In return for local and state support, the division offered to eventually employ as many as 740 people in Greensboro.

The new crop protection division was formed after Switzerland's Novartis AG pharmaceutical group and British-Swedish AstraZeneca PLC decided to spin off and merge their agricultural-chemical units. Syngenta Crop Protection was formed partly through the combination of Zeneca Ag Products of Delaware and Novartis Crop Protection.

The spin-off merger deal also resulted in the renaming of Novartis' agribusiness biotechnology research division in Research Triangle Park, which now bears a new Syngenta sign on its front lawn on Cornwallis Road. "This will be a key site for Syngenta' s genetic crop research," said Sherry Duvall, a company spokesperson.

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