Agriculture Specialists Kynetec and Kleffmann Merge

Animal health and agriculture researcher Kynetec and agricultural MR specialist the Kleffmann Group have completed a transaction to merge. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Kynetec, which was acquired by GfK in 2009 and bought out again in 2015 by an investor-backed management team, employs a team of 360 research professionals, 220 interviewers and a global network of around 70 associates and partners. Kleffmann also employs more than 300 researchers, and has more than eighteen international subsidiaries in Asia, Australia, Europe, North and Latin America. Kleffmann's amis panel surveys, supported by additional qual and quant data, help clients understand farmers' purchase behaviour, as well as areas including crop protection, seed, animal health and agricultural machinery. In addition to a global network of farmer input panels, the firm draws its data from both syndicated and bespoke ad hoc research studies.

The combined company therefore numbers around 950 people across 30 countries, including researchers, interviewers, data analysts, marketing scientists and data visualization specialists. In a statement, the firms said the merged company will develop globally consistent solutions, world-wide farmer respondent communities, and advanced analytics that take market insight generation to the 'next level'. The current product and service portfolios of both companies will be retained, and all Kynetec team members and Kleffmann Group's MR team will be part of the newly merged company.

Kleffmann Group's founder and CEO Burkhard Kleffmann (pictured), formerly its main shareholder, has left the Group to focus on the continued development of the agricultural remote sensing specialist My Data Plant/ Crop Radar, a non-competing business.

Web sites: www.kynetec.com and www.kleffmann.com .