Indianapolis-based Corteva made a big announcement earlier this week about where their new headquarters will be once they split by year’s end.
“It’s such an important win, Eric, and it’s really exciting,” says Christy Wright, President and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana. “New Corteva”, which will center on crop protection and nature-inspired technologies, will remain in Indy. Wright says this wasn’t a given.
“It was a multi-state search that Indiana competed for, and how excellent that Corteva decided to double down on Indiana. And I think that says a lot about the ecosystem we have here and about what they think Indiana can do to support their next chapter in their strategy.”
Indiana Secretary of Commerce David Adams spoke at the AgriNovus Quadrant event Wednesday evening in Indianapolis where he told HAT that they emphasized to Corteva all the assets available to them in Indiana.
“I think they got a better picture of the fact that they’re here, but we’ve got Lilly, we’ve got Elanco, we’ve got Purdue University, we’ve got IU. We have the assets that they’re going to need to support not only the growth they have today, but the future growth that they’re looking to explore.”
While “New Corteva” will stay in Indy, their advanced seed and genetics arm, soon to be known as “Vylor”, will locate its headquarters in Johnston, Iowa, home of their flagship seed brand Pioneer. Indiana did compete to keep both HQs in Indy.
“That would have been a heavy lift for them to actually relocate all those resources, those R&D resources, from Des Moines, Iowa, to Indianapolis,” Adams explained. “But that doesn’t close the door. So, I think there’s going to be lots of opportunity, even with the existing business and the new business, to actually create streams of research and development activities here. We’ll just have to see how this all plays out. We always want to get all of it, right? And we worked aggressively to get all of it, but it was going to be a heavy lift. But we’re not going to give up the fight.”
Wright tells Hoosier Ag Today that she was proud of the effort and the proposed bid offered to locate Vylor in Indiana. She wishes them well in their next chapter and is hopeful they’ll continue to tap into the rich ecosystem we have here in Indiana.
