Expanding our poultry footprint
The poultry division of our Animal Health business in Russia opened a new technical support center for veterinary equipment, Vaccination Technologies and Service Center (VTS Center), at the end of July. In this interview, Vincent Boue, Animal Health Director Boehringer Ingelheim Russia, talks about the Russian business and how the VTS Center can help to strengthen company’s poultry business position.
How strong is the company's current position in the poultry segment?
In Russia, Boehringer Ingelheim is regarded a very strong partner for the poultry industry thanks to the quality of our portfolio which is among the widest within Boehringer Ingelheim's affiliates. Although we benefit from a large portfolio offer, one of the main challenges that we will face is to continue to develop and grow our business in a fiercely competitive environment. To achieve this, we are looking at expanding our poultry footprint especially in top national key accounts where there’s a demand for high quality products with strong efficacy and safety profiles. The new VTS Center that we have just opened in Moscow will help.
How will it help?
The VTS Center was identified a few years ago as a strategic initiative for our poultry business and it is fully in line with our goal to provide new services to our customers. Vaccination equipment is an integral part of our value proposition. When you have 70 per cent of your products requiring specific vaccination equipment, it's paramount that you control and guarantee quality of the equipment. At our dedicated VTS Center in Moscow, we will be able to stock, maintain and repair our vaccination equipment as well as invite customers to live-demo seminars. I see these new services and activities as a real competitive advantage and a way to increase our value proposition to our customers.
Are we the first in this market to do this or do the competitors have something similar?
Other companies also propose vaccination equipment. However, Boehringer Ingelheim has a strong experience and reputation for innovative solutions regarding vaccination. This makes the company a leader in that domain.
What are the major goals you plan to achieve by the end of 2018 regarding the poultry business and our Animal Health Business Unit in Russia in general?
First of all, 2018 is on track for being a very successful year for our Animal Health business in general. Now that we are almost in Q4, the team’s objective is to plan and get ready for 2019 which will certainly be another challenging but exciting year. The goal I set for our team is to make our business in Russia sustainable in the long run and this is less about achieving results in a particular year, but more about making sure we repeat this success year after year.