“Agrochema”: the attitude of our team towards the customers also contributes to maintaining leadership
For three decades, “Agrochema” has been the leader in the liquid nitrogen fertilizer market in Lithuania, the company is also actively operating in Latvia and Estonia. The CEO of UAB “Agrochema” which is part of concern “Achemos grupė” Aurimas Lukoševičius was inquired how to maintain this leadership, what decisions make the greatest contribution by „Verslo žinios“.
The CEO noted that “Agrochema” not only sells, but also produces liquid fertilizers, which are very popular among the farmers due to their characteristics. The leadership is maintained since the company listens actively and actually hears the needs of the customers, improves the formulas of the fertilizers in order to ensure that the products are of the most benefit for the farmers. Every year the specialists of “Agrochema” carry out various research to determine what products are required by the customers, seeking to maintain the demand for the products of the company.
“We have even organised a workshop for the farmers as we called them, during which we collaborated with the farmers to develop products that they need the most. We have already produced the respectful fertilizers and put them on the market for the farmers, – elaborated A. Lukoševičius. – We did not stop at this point, our specialists are developing the products further: during the recent years our company has introduced organic mineral NPK fertilizers called “Imuno” with bioactive compounds, renewed “Mikro+” for crop. Whereas the potassium and sulphur fertilizers “NKS + amino” that contain amino acids and were developed in cooperation with the farmers became very popular and positively evaluated by the market experts. We continue our discussions with the farmers and create innovations jointly in order to meet their changing needs across different regions.”
Another factor enabling to maintain the leadership is the persistence of “Agrochema” team to offer the customers only the fertilizers that meet the highest quality requirements. It is also of utmost importance for the farmers that the fertilizers purchased by them are delivered to their farms very promptly, since most of them need the fertilizers right away as the pre-conditions for applying the fertilizers are determined by the weather conditions. The speed of delivery is enhanced by the fact that the company has 21 locations within the country that can be used as a pick-up site by the farmers or deliveries can be arranged from these locations by “Agrochema”.
“The farmers also appreciated the digitalization of our procedures as it also enhanced the mutual cooperation significantly and also contributed to saving the time for the farmers. We were the first company to open online store of products for professional use in agriculture called Eagrochema.lt/ukininkams/. Any can order plant protection means, fertilizers, seeds, fuel and any other products from home,” explained the CEO of “Agrochema”.
According to him another step further was also made: the year before last the company launched and last year improved the online self-service. Here any farmer can long on to the account and review previous order history, purchases, invoices, the quality and prices of the crop delivered to the elevators of “Agrochema”. An opportunity was also created for concluding crop sales – procurement contracts online and to make payments at the online store for the products acquired using the money received for the grain sold.
Within the entire country “Agrochema” has ten elevators and two grain buy-up locations, where the company buys-up more than 700 000 tons of grain per year, almost all of which is further exported from Klaipėda and Riga marine ports.
“Our elevators and the laboratories operated in them have been provided with the newest devices that provide an objective assessment of the quality and weight of the bought-up grain and this information is provided directly into the accounting system. This enables the company to eliminate the human factor which may cause mistakes, subjectivity and etc. Moreover, the automation of the procedures the acceptance of grain takes place a lot faster and in more transparent manner,” elaborated A. Lukoševičius.
A separate online store Eagrochema.lt/sodininkams/ is dedicated to amateur gardeners and horticulturists. At this store fertilizers, plant protection and maintenance means, soil and peat substrates, seeds and plant seedlings, goods for bee-keeping and other products can be purchased by any citizen of the Republic of Lithuania.
“Today part of our business is dedicated to gardeners and horticulturists, who have a garden, grow vegetables, nurture a flower bed or a greenhouse. We have a special line of products, where we pack bulk and liquid fertilizers in small amounts for this exact group of buyers. In this case we also put a lot of focus on innovations, take into consideration the actual demand of this group of customers. Therefore, we introduce several new types of fertilizers every year. For instance, recently we have offered chlorine-free fertilizers for fruit trees and shrubs and fertilizers for vegetables. We keep track of the market and also respond to the needs of our small customers – gardeners and horticulturists,” emphasized the CEO of “Agrochema”.
According to the CEO, the constantly improved online store is discovered by more and more customer, which find it an excellent place to select the necessary products, order the goods and receive them at any convenient address. By the way, it has been ensured that products stored at the warehouse that were ordered in the morning are received by the buyer on the very next working day.
“The customers appreciate our efforts as most of them return to the online store. In the future we also expect to witness a growth in the number of online store, since we always encourage the customers to provide their feedback, expand our assortment, improve our products and the online shopping experience itself,” summarized A. Lukoševičius.
The company offers the farmers not only fertilizers, seeds and plant protection means, but also provides consultations and recommendations of their most efficient usage.
“We have a team of professional agronomists, who provide consultations to the farmers from the very beginning of the sowing until the harvesting: they prepare a certain plan, what means of protection as well as fertilizers should be used and how, in order to achieve the highest and most qualitative yield possible, – explained the CEO of “Agrochema”. – By the way, the regional manager can be contacted regarding a consultation or a piece of advice by any farmer, irrespectively whether the said farmer is already our customer or not. In case of larger farms they usually have their own agronomists, whereas the smaller farms are usually in high demand for the help from our specialists. Nevertheless, there are also cases, when the agronomists from largest farms seek the consultations of our specialists. Thus, we are ready to offer the full variety of products and services to a farm of any size, whatever the need might be: seeds, fertilizers, plant protection means, and diesel.”
During “TOP Employer” of 2024 election organised by website “CV-online” “Agrochema” was among the best three employers in the trade category and took the fourth place among the best employers in Aukštaitija region. As A. Lukoševičius noted, the question, what determined such evaluation could be best answered by the employees themselves.
“Our employees are engaged in really interesting and important work, which is never in lack of challenges and cannot be characterised as monotonous. I personally have been working in “Agrochema” for seven years already and no two years were the same or even alike, – recalled the CEO of the company. – Besides the competitive wage, part of which consists of variable share depending on the personal results of a certain employee, the company also imposes an actually implemented additional benefit program, we grant an opportunity to work remotely several days a week. We have quite a number of examples of internal career, when a person seeking a career is enabled to grow within the same company or even change the nature of the work entirely. By the way, 7 years ago I started working at the company as production manager of an elevator.”
