Overview The owner and founder behind Alltech Inc is Dr. Pearse Lyons. He was a dynamic scientist who was enthusiastic for discovering solutions to health and nutrition problems in the food industry. He obtained his degree in biochemistry and University College Dublin where he later followed by working for four years as research manager with Irish Distillers Ltd, which produced Irish whiskey. But during the 1980’s the alcohol fuel industry took off in the United States. With Dr. Lyons expertise in fermentation, he took up a career in the production of biofuel. But after the unexpected collapse of the fuel alcohol business forced Dr. Lyon out of the industry he decided to pursue something with less world politics and energy influence, which led him to the assumption that if yeasts, certain bacteria, and enzymes could help animals digest their food better, that it would lower the cost of production. The idea of producing animal feed additives was not commonly accepted during the time he started, but it did not take long for producers of livestock to raise awareness of the company. This was also influenced by Alltech’s desire to produce the most amount of feed at the lowest possible price. They also had the perception to “be the first to produce and the first to find conclusions” Alltech’s main headquarters was founded in Lexington, KY. But this was no constraint to the global expansion to the Alltech feed company. Due to the reduction of the trade barrier, Alltect has successfully installed factories all over the country including; European Union, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Brazil, Japan, and many more.

Alltech is a very widespread company in many different countries producing a variety of products. But being so globally spread it is easy to run into difficult situations. During the 1990’s there was a decline in livestock by 45% which accumulated an excesses of feed to livestock producers and to the company’s warehouse taking a substantial finical loss.

The Alltech company has grown to such a large company, it is considered to be one of the largest animal feed additive producers in the world. Since Alltech has grown to such, they have began to split their divisions into segmentation by species which required the company to consider products for pigs (starter, grower, finisher), to poultry (layers, broilers, turkeys, and ducks) and to cattle (dairy and beef). This segmentation allows for better concentration and allocation to the specific breed therefore promoting quality, and a safer product.

Another downside to the Alltech corporation is that they found a process referred to as SSF, which is a technology which uses moist solid material to carry out fermentation, as opposed to free flowing water. The process of SSF increased production and increased quality of feed and also cut cost of production. While the process of SSF also makes it cheaper to produce it will also make it less expensive for the consumer to purchase. Even as this sounds like such a miraculous idea the only downside is that the only plant that Alltech has that uses this technology is located in Mexico. If this technology is so highly volatile, why couldn’t they open more factories capable of using this technology or convert existing facilitates??

One flaw that I did see in the management of Alltech was their perspective of distribution. They assumed the theory that when distribution arrangements performed well, they accepted whatever system was in place. But when the channel was not performing well the company established a sales subsidiary. This lack of management is not detrimental but if the performance of distribution is going well, why not try to make it great? If the distribution process was increased, than that could increase the liability of customer loyalty.

Alltech has been ranked in the top 20 in the world in the animal health industry. They have specialized in animal health and nutrition. But even though they are so large they are the only company in the top 20 that are not involved with pharmaceuticals, amino acids, vitamins, or antibiotics. Even as they are a highly specialized company their competitors have outweighed them in other productions. They should allocate there sources and look into producing pharmaceuticals, and amino acids because it would not be hard or out-of-reach for them to produce such products.

Alltech’s marketing is a very vital asset to them. they offer a 3 day Alltech Symposium at their headquarters in Lexington, KY. This allows for invited nutritionist to attend and scrutinize against the product while being answered by a professional Alltech member that can inform and answer any and all question that may be asked. This is a very creative and innovative way of reaching actual and potential customers.

Throughout the spread of popularity of the production of animal feed additives, the market has become more globally integrated and more difficult to enter. Even though most of Alltech’s competition was family owned businesses, they still had a fear that they may combine and purpose a greater threat to their company. Most of the local companies had regional recognition from being family owned but Alltech has the advantage of possessing global brand recognition. But as these multiple competitors varied depending on circumstances Alltech firmly believed that they had a greater presence in the field through salespeople, more brand recognition, more research on the products they promoted and lower costs to consumer.