Advanta Seeds is the new name for one of the most innovative and fastest growing seed companies in Canada. Advanta Seeds replaces the name Zeneca Seeds, well known to customers across Canada as the breeders and marketers of Hyola hybrid canola, Hysyn Polish canola, Option open pollinated Argentine canola, HyLite apetalous canola, Garst brand seed corn and Interstate sunflower hybrids.

Howard Morris, General Manager of Advanta Seeds, says the change in corporate identity represents a major step forward as the company prepares for the next century. "Advanta Seeds is a member company of Advanta. Although the Advanta name is not yet well known in Canada, we are one of the fourth largest seed companies in the world. Globally, Advanta is recognized for its innovation in plant breeding and biotechnology", says Morris, "By changing our name to Advanta Seeds, we can take full advantage of our role within the Advanta global organization as a primary breeder and marketer of canola and short season corn hybrids, and marketer of sunflower hybrids."

Advanta, as a global seed company, came into existence in 1996 with the establishment of a joint venture between Royal VanderHave Group, based in the Netherlands, and Zeneca Seeds, based in the United Kingdom. This partnership created a seed company with research centres, breeding programs, and sales offices in countries around the world. Globally, Advanta is involved in corn, canola, sunflowers, sugarbeets, soybeans, sorghum, grasses, cereals, and other local crops.

"The change to Advanta Seeds will allow producers, industry, and our technology partners to more fully associate our Canadian business as part of a global seed breeding effort", Morris says. "Our goal is to further develop our internal skills in plant breeding and biotechnology in key crops that include canola, corn and sunflowers. We currently have a world class canola breeding program in Canada, and are the market leaders in the development of hybrid canola and specialty traits such as apetalous canola. We have also recently made a large commitment to expand our short season com breeding program in Canada. Our corn business will grow dramatically over the next few years due to our innovation with G-STAC(TM) trait packaging, and the development of hybrids with proprietary traits such as grey leaf spot resistance and high pH soil tolerance." Morris notes that Advanta Seeds will continue to expand upon the extensive research program currently in place with their technology partners. "We are combining the specific input and output traits developed by our technology partners with Advanta Seeds technology and our elite germplasm to provide valued added seed products for producers and processors."

The corporate change to Advanta Seeds will have no impact on the product brand names now sold to producers. "All of our brand names including Hyola hybrid canola, Hysyn Polish canola, Option OP ranola, HyLite apetalous canolas, Garst brand seed corn, and Interstate brand sunflowers will remain unchanged. The only difference will be the addition of the Advanta Seeds label on seed packaging", notes David Hansen, Sales Manager with Advanta Seeds. "The Advanta Seeds name will become a symbol of performance and quality, in the same way the Zeneca Seeds name is now viewed in the industry.ot

For more information on Advanta Seeds, or for a free copy of the Advanta Seeds corporate overview, call 1-800-661 -9000 or visit our new website at http://wwvv.advantacan.com. 

Company news release
N1870