KEY POINTS:
Argenta chief executive Doug Cleverly hasn't set foot in his office for the past 12 months: the man who describes himself as a "hair-on-fire-type science entrepreneur" would rather sit where the action is, down in the research lab below.
Not that Cleverly has had much time for sitting lately: he and his 89 staff have spent nine months working towards getting US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to export the animal pharmaceuticals that Argenta makes to the US.
The Manurewa-based company passed inspection first time, a huge milestone given the rigorous FDA requirements and that the company had to maintain its everyday business at the same time. Few New Zealand companies have FDA approval, and Argenta is the only Australasian company in its field to acquire it.
The approval gives Argenta enormous street cred: since getting it in May the company has clinched a million-dollar manufacturing contract with a multinational company.
Approval also paves the way to the potentially lucrative US market, which makes up about 30-40 per cent of the $17 billion global animal health product market. In New Zealand, the market is worth about $250 million a year.
Argenta's core business is products for sheep and cattle, but Cleverly wants to target the "companion animal" (cats and dogs) market, which is cheaper in freight costs because of the smaller quantities required, and is growing faster.
A trained research chemist, Cleverly set up Argenta last year. After working for US animal health product research and manufacturing giant Merial for four years, he knew a New Zealand company could do the same work faster and for a third of the price.
In 2003 he had set up ChemLab with ex-colleague Gordon Vincent, an animal health product researcher and developer. The pair were frustrated because they struggled to attract the US multinationals.
"We didn't have the stainless steel, the 6-acre site or the fantastic-looking reception area. New Zealanders are a bit more forgiving of a couple of people just having a go. [However, American pharmaceutical companies have] got tens of millions of dollars on the line and they don't want to take a risk on an outfit that they're not comfortable with."
The pair realised expansion was the only option for growth, and so last year merged the the eight-employee ChemLab with the 72-employee Nufarm Health & Sciences - the New Zealand-based animal health products division of Australia's Nufarm that both had worked for in the past - to form Argenta.
For Cleverly, Argenta's point of difference is its ability to be flexible enough to respond quickly to its customers. He aims to keep it that way by assigning small teams to work on specific projects and giving them the autonomy to "do what they believe is the right thing to do" so they feel engaged with their work.
In big companies, staff demonstrate they're clever by stopping things happening so mistakes aren't made, he says.
"In a small company like ours we assemble a small, tight-knit group of people around the problem and we can get a hell of a lot of things done that [bigger companies] couldn't achieve, in terms of time."
It's not just about having experience and knowledge; a sense of humour and a personality are also on Cleverly's prospective staff list.
"It's all about having people who can relate to others. [Having a personality] is key when you're talking to a client about something that's gone wrong, because you need to be able to present to the client what went wrong without them spitting the dummy, and also offer them solutions as to how to fix it. [Potential staff] can have the best credentials on the planet but if they haven't got a personality, they're pretty much a waste of skin."
The FDA approval process cost about $650,000, including hiring a US expert who spent one week a month with Argenta for nine months. But the cost is viewed as an investment which could bring in tens of millions of dollars. Argenta received several grants along the way - $130,000 from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to help pay the US FDA expert. The company has also had to recruit someone from the US to maintain its FDA standards because, as Cleverly points out, it's one thing to get approval but another to maintain it.
The FDA process also had positive spin-offs on the way the newly merged companies worked, Cleverly says, revealing that some processes and protocols were so complex staff didn't know which ones to follow.
As an example of the stringent FDA requirements, Argenta could be failed if the auditors saw an outdated procedure tucked away in a desk drawer, he says.
"[The auditors] could say, if this gets into production you could end up doing something that's non-compliant, therefore we're going to fail you."
The auditors even bought their own bottled water, because accepting water from the company could be seen as taking bribes.
The company's success also lifted staff pride. "There was a lot of nervousness about the FDA audit and it's been a real boost to have been through the process with such success."
