Marrone Bio Innovations Adds Credibility To Biopesticide Industry
August 3, 2013 
Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. (MBI), a company dedicated to advancing the pest management industry with bio-based crop protection and plant health products, announced pricing of Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Aug. 1, 2013. The initial offering consisting of 4.75 million shares of its common stock at $12.00 per share, began trading on NASDAQ on August 2 as “MBII.�
Shortly after the official announcement, Pam Marrone, CEO and Founder of MBI gave an exclusive interview to Meister Media Worldwide to explain the significance of the company’s bold move. Marrone says the decision to go public has allowed them “to create a new category of high growth at biostocks, plus the credibility factor is key to execute what we need to do to grow faster.�
According to the CEO of MBI, filing IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not an easy task, “It’s a grueling process. You have to execute your plan, demonstrate your growth and meet your forecast.� However, that is not the toughest part – there was a large list of goals MBI had to achieve before the investors even considered them as a prospect.
Given the nature of the business it is also important that initial and potential investors understand the difference between biochemistries and conventional chemicals, among other considerations. “There is a range of knowledge of this category [among investors],� assures Marrone, “so our job was to capture their imagination.�
Marrone says it’s imperative that biopesticides are perceived as real tools that provide economic value among other advantages for farming programs. “[Biopesticides] are not longer snake oils, or niche products; they are mainstream. You use them whether you are an organic farmer as standalone, or a conventional farmer and you incorporate them into a program with your other products.� And she adds that biopesticides offer properties that chemicals don’t. “When incorporated into a program is often better than the chemical-only program, because you need different modes of action; don’t have to worry about residues; have a shorter re-entry period; can delay developing resistance to chemicals because [biopesticides] are resistance-proof.�
In order to keep the momentum going, MBI has set several goals; among these are manufacturing some of their products at their new Bangor facility in Michigan, closing more distribution agreements in the international markets for Regalia and Grandevo, and releasing one to two new products per year.
One of the strongest points of MBI is precisely the company’s diverse portfolio. “We have [bio] fungicides, insecticides, nematicides and herbicides. We are very unique in that regard; there are no other companies with the breadth of that portfolio – high performing products across all the categories,� Marrone points out.
And a company that’s substantial enough to go public conveys a message of stability, which is another advantage for MBI. �Distributors and growers see products with one single technology, they see one company after another so it’s hard for them to pay any attention to those; then they see that companies like that they may come and go, but with what we are offering, they know we are here to stay, growing, don’t have to worry about stability; that is a huge advantage,� Marrone concludes.
With the current world population of seven billion projected to reach nine billion by 2050, feeding the world is certainly a vast challenge, but it is also an opportunity for companies such as MBI that offer products that growers can use to produce more sustainably.
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