French co-op takes 50% stake in Irish R&D company

InVivo, the largest agricultural co-operative group in France, has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Irish R&D company Life Scientific for an undisclosed amount.

The deal is fully in line with the “2025 by InVivo” strategy and in particular with InVivo Agro’s strategy of forming strategic alliances to invest in innovation and bring the union’s cooperatives and their members a broader range of sustainable and profitable solutions.

Laurent Martel, director of InVivo agriculture division and newly appointed chairman of Life Scientific, said that its acquisition of a stake in Life Scientific is part of its strategy.

“Our aim is to form upstream partnerships with suppliers able to meet our specifications, with a view to marketing selected post-patent products,” he said.

Life Scientific was established by Nicola Mitchell in 1995, and is currently headquartered at NovaUCD. It specialises in off-patent crop protection products and currently employs 20 people. It has an annual turnover of over € 10 million. Ms Mitchell will retain her position as CEO of Life Scientific.

The transaction will allow Life Scientific to scale its proven business model, both in France and globally.

“It will strengthen our engagement with our customers, the InVivo cooperative members, and is a major endorsement of Life Scientific’s continued capacity to innovate on a global scale,” she said.

InVivo, which employs 6,600 people in 20 countries, is a union of over 220 farming co-operatives and has combined membership of over 300,000 farmers. It has annual revenues of € 5.7 billion. The remit of InVivo is to work together with its member co-operatives to develop sustainable and profitable solutions enabling farmers to secure their production and revenue.