Salinas, California
May 4,  2001

Seed technology giant INCOTEC has announced the appointment of Jerry Vosti as Sales Consultant to represent its North American research and manufacturing operations based in Salinas, CA.

A respected leader in the seed industry, Vosti brings to his new position 25 years of experience in a broad range of areas that include marketing, operations management, sales, and customer service.

“We are very pleased to have Jerry as a key member of our sales team,” said INCOTEC General Manager David A. Pickenpaugh. “He has developed exceptionally strong customer relations within the industry which will considerably enhance our marketing presence. He will also position the company more effectively in his role as Incotec North America’s primary liaison to California and Arizona customers.”

Vosti most recently served as Corporate Account Executive at Seminis and General Manager at Genecorp Seed Company. Vosti holds a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in marketing from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

Although the INCOTEC product line is varied, Vosti will initially focus on seed technology for lettuce, a major sales crop for California customers.

“In terms of seed enhancement, the genetics of lettuce have become very complex because of the different breeding programs,” explains Vosti. “It is sometimes difficult to get a good stand with some of these new varieties. Priming seed is now crop-specific. For example, the Salinas Valley requires one technology, but in Yuma, where the air temperature is 110 degrees and the soil temperature is 140 degrees, there are things you need to do to that seed to obtain desired stands. Our goal at Incotec is to help customers get that desired stand. We are there as a support service for customers and to keep agriculture healthy. Fortunately, INCOTEC is a global company with huge resources. Its European operations are developing cutting-edge technologies that we hope to apply to our products here in California.”

It is this passion and commitment to quality products that Vosti shows his own customers, and which they have come to rely on.

“The people in our industry have a lot of heart,” says Vosti, who feels his true forte is in customer relations. “I’ve developed really strong relationships over the years with many people in the grower/shipper network, the breeder/producer network, and the dealer network. For me, it’s past the point where they are just customers. They are also friends.”

“There is a lot of untapped potential in both our customer relations and marketing that Jerry will bring to our operations here in Salinas,” said Pickenpaugh. “He has the ability to open doors and develop long-term relationships which will contribute immeasurably to our operations.”

INCOTEC develops and markets seed coating technology that improves the plantability and emergence of vegetable, flower, tobacco, and other agricultural seed. As an industry leader, Incotec—North America was recently awarded with the prestigious ISO 9001 certification. The ISO 9000 series standards have become international reference for stringent quality requirements in business-to-business dealings and form the basis for some 350,000 quality management systems within private and public sector organizations in 150 countries.

Company news release
N3501