January 28, 2015

Delacon CEO Markus Dedl announced at the ongoing (January 27-29) IPPE 2015 poultry industry exhibition in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States, that the company has restructured its Research & Development, Product Management and Innovation teams to cut away overlapping functions and further improve operational efficiency.

One of the leading global producers of plant-based feed additives, Delacon is participating in the annual International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) for the first time.

"Research and Development" and "Product Management and Innovation" were separate divisions in the company. The two has been merged into the "Product & Innovation Division."

Dr. Jan Dirk van der Klis, Delacon's Species Leader for Poultry, has been appointed head of the new division in concurrent capacity. He now reports directly to Mr. Dedl.

In Delacon's new Product & Innovation division, the former product management and so-called Species Leaders for Poultry, Ruminants and Swine as well as the Research & Development team are brought together under one umbrella.

Dr. van der Klis's primary task as head of the Product & Innovation division will be" to unify the former structure into one strong team that makes use of the synergies between them, and to support the interaction between the different species, as well as R&D, Mr. Dedl said.

"The large overlap of R&D, product management and innovation is obvious in daily business and our new organisation will allow us to use synergies even more efficiently. We are absolutely convinced that Jan Dirk van der Klis is the right person for this challenging task," he added.

Dr. van der Klis joined Delacon as Species Leader for Poultry in January 2014. Prior to that, he led poultry research teams and did consulting initiatives for many years. He holds a PhD degree in animal nutrition from the Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands.

Following the restructuring, Bohumír Simerda handed over his responsibility for Research and Development to Mr. van der Klis. Maintaining his position as director for the Central and Eastern Europe region, Mr. Simerda will now focus more on Delacon's expansion activities in the region.

Due to its location and organisation, Delacon's Performing Nature Research Centre in Znojmo, Czech Republic, will remain part of the CEE division, but will maintain a strong link to the R&D department.