Meet a Member: Belchim Crop Protection

About us:

I am William Weld and I am responsible for amenity products for the UK and Eire and Belchim Crop Protection. Belchim are known for our well established residual herbicide products Chikara and Katana containing 25% w/w flazasulfuron. I am based in South of the UK and my main role is to develop and provide technical support for Belchim products to our distributors Rigby Taylor, Nomix, Sherriff Amenity, Green-tech and Whelehans in Eire.

Our challenges:

New products take up most of my time. That can be developing a market for a new active or the other way around, looking for actives for an identified need. We currently have a natural origin herbicide Katoun Gold containing 500g/l pelargonic acid coming to the market. One of the best ways to be able to provide accurate technical support is through field experience, so that means we spend quite a bit of time with potential customers building up first-hand experience.

Our expertise:

I am relative new comer to the amenity industry but my background is in the agricultural industry, which isn’t too far removed from amenity.
• Product development
• Communication
• People skills

What turns a normal working day into a great day?

When you work for a manufacturer, no two days are the same. Good days are when the daily task has been successful, but for me, product development has to be one of the most rewarding tasks. Developing new products tends to be a rollercoaster and will generally involve successes and setbacks. If the product makes it to the market, it means there have been more successes! A great day is achieving a goal that was not thought to be possible, whether that was with a customer or a particularly difficult technical issue.

Did you know?

I am not sure I have any particular talents. However, products don’t sell themselves – people sell products, and I would like to think one of my strengths is that I am a people person.

I enjoy travelling, particularly on my aged motorcycle to the not-so-visited places in Europe. Meeting people and trying the local food can be great fun. Where there is a language barrier and the description gets lost in translation, you can end up with something unexpected and not always to your liking!

What it means to be a member of the Amenity Forum:

The Amenity Forum has provided good networking opportunities and with the regular meetings, has provided a platform where industry issues can be aired. Training is at the top of my list which has not necessarily been the highest standard in the amenity industry. Government required training tends to meet the minimum standard, which is often not a high enough to make the most of modern and future products. The Amenity Forum in conjunction with BASIS are coming up with some useful ideas for improved training.