Clayton Plant Protection; a multi-faceted business offering growers valuable choice and flexibility in agriculture, horticulture and amenity sectors.

As an established family business of more than 25 years, Clayton Plant Protection has an experienced team and an effective business model for the challenges faced in the industry today. It also has the ability to adapt quickly to changing business and regulatory environments the industry will likely face in the future. A focus on customers and quality is paramount to provide cost-effective, flexible solutions for growers and an alternative to the large multinationals.

With an expanding portfolio of proven high performance generic formulations and a wide range of parallel registrations, Clayton gives growers today the choices they need for tackling key pest, disease and weed problems. This valuable choice available for growers is largely derived from the company’s forward-thinking strategy in structuring the business into three main divisions; consisting of Parallel Products, Generic Registrations and Third Party Generic Registrations, all of which support its growing customer base.

 “Our Irish registered company acts as an ideal conduit for trading and exporting to European markets, and is further benefited by our unique offering in being the only company in the UK to sell parallel products, generic products and third party generic products.” explains Dave O’Mahony, Commercial Director, Clayton Plant Protection Ltd.

Offering growers a selection of top performance products:

In terms of parallel products, Clayton now has 54 active registrations across Europe; where, in the EU single market, products are bought in one EU country and are relabelled and repackaged under Clayton branding for sale in another EU country. In order to sell these products under the company’s own brand, Clayton undertake the proper statutory procedures to register the products in the prospective country. Clayton is the leading parallel importer in the UK market, and following recent targeted investment, now has growing significance in other leading European markets such as France and Germany. In addition to this wide range of parallel products, Clayton currently also has 5 generic product registrations in two EU countries, for which it outsources the manufacturing to high quality toll formulators. A key element in the company’s ethos is to ensure a smooth transition in terms of branding from parallels to generic registrations under the Clayton name. This ensures consistent branding for its customers during the marketing and sales of all its products, providing high recognition, brand awareness and competitive advantage in the market.

“We ensure all our generic products are developed, authorised, manufactured and marketed under the same strict rules and requirements as the original products. In this way, Clayton can guarantee the very highest quality formulations, best efficacy and performance for our growers at cost-effective pricing, to add to their crop protection armoury and often at much better cost input value.” says Dave O’Mahony.

And complementing its own generic registrations are a further range of third party generic registrations, where Clayton markets and distributes products on behalf of other third party generic manufacturers across Europe. These products are purchased as finished goods, sometimes branded under the suppliers’ label and own brand, though the Clayton name is always shown on the label as the sole marketer and distributor of the product, which ensures confidence for our customers. Combined together, the three divisions enable Clayton to offer a significant portfolio of market-leading plant protection products with much more flexibility around product choice than many other suppliers.

Some key facts around parallels and generics:

 “The processes around parallel and generic product registrations can be misunderstood, and it’s important for growers to fully understand these to ensure they can be confident in their product choice on farm. Clayton is proactive in the industry in terms of ensuring clear information around parallels and generics for our customers and in supporting product stewardship for growers, and we also have a range of useful FAQs available on our website for users to look at.” explains Will Ridgwell, UK Sales & Marketing Manager.

What is often overlooked is that parallels sourced and imported from an EU member state are ‘identical’ to the reference UK product, and are still manufactured by the authorisation holder of the reference product, but are simply relabelled or repacked by the parallel import licence holder such as ourselves. And importantly, under EU regulations (EC 1107 / 2009) all ‘Extensions of Authorisation for minor uses’ or EAMUs approved for the reference product automatically apply to the parallel using that reference brand; so all Clayton parallels have the same advantages of full label and extended uses for growers as well as offering potential cost savings. This further includes Clayton offering tank mix warranty for our complete range of parallel import products in-line with the original authorisation holders recommended tank mixes for the reference product in the UK.

A parallel import licence describes a plant protection product that is imported from an EU Member State which is identical to the reference UK product. It differs from a generic licence in that a parallel import PPP is still manufactured by the authorisation holder of the reference product, but it is relabelled and repacked by the parallel import licence holder. Further information can be found under HSE Guidance.

A generic licence (also referred to as an ‘off-patent product’) is a product that is manufactured after the expiration of a patent or other exclusive rights, by a company that does not hold the original patent, and without the need for a license from the original patent holder. Generic products are developed, authorised, manufactured and marketed under the same strict rules and requirements as the ‘original’ products. Further information can be found on the ECCA website.

“With a wide parallel and generic range of crop protection options for the 2018/19 season, including key autumn and spring herbicides, market-leading triazole, strobilurin and SDHI fungicides in single or multi-active formulations, broad-spectrum insecticides and PGRs, Clayton are ideally placed to provide cost-effective solutions for growers all year round. Our broad portfolio and comprehensive compatibility support ensure we provide an all-round premium service to growers and agronomists.” says Will Ridgwell.

Clayton Plant Protection will continue to offer existing ranges as well as new, innovative product solutions in the UK and other key markets across Europe in future years to continually improve our overall product offering and customer service level in agriculture, as well as supporting important specialist sectors including horticulture and amenity.

Clayton has a wide range of parallel and generic products for both the autumn and spring uses. Full labels and further information on all our products can be found at www.claytonpp.com