(Gerry Dick)

Ajay Patel, you’re president of Verdure Sciences, an amazing company, I mean very interesting and that you’re headquartered in Noblesville in IN, again a global footprint; but you’ve created breakthroughs in advancing natural plant-based therapeutic delivery forms through this global footprint. Give us the description of the company because I think it’s very interesting.

 

(Ajay Patel) 10:05

Yes, thank you very much for having me here.

Verdure Sciences is an ag-biosciences company. We deal with traditional botanicals; a lot of botanicals that are being used globally for centuries, but they don’t necessarily have the proven safety, efficacy, or the clinical substantiation. So as a company, what we have done over the years is we’ve identified unique botanicals and we have taken them through this rigorous scientific scrutiny.

We have aligned ourselves with a lot of universities worldwide. So not only in North America, but in Europe, in Australia, in India; that’s where a lot of our manufacturing partners are located. So, the traceability aspect of these botanicals is very important and so we’ve done that over the years by aligning ourselves vertically, as Matt mentioned earlier, so that we take care of the quality aspects of these ingredients that we are marketing because consumers, anymore of very conscious, obviously, of what they are ingesting in their bodies.

So as a company, we have really focused on identifying those botanicals, taking them to the scrutiny of the clinical validation, and then aligning the supply chain globally.

 

(Gerry Dick) 11:15

You would think a company like yours would be headquartered in California, or someplace out of the Midwest, but not in the Midwest, in Noblesville, IN. What are the assets and the positives, in your view, of doing business here?

 

(Ajay Patel) 11:27

Right. Absolutely. So, I went to Purdue University and graduated as a Chemical Engineer. Since then I’ve started the business here in Indiana, and we’ve been in Noblesville for 15 years. And Noblesville has been great for us all the way from being a small business to growing over the years.

I’ve had the pleasure to have the mayor and the city at our offices a few times over the last decade, which is really great for a business like us where they recognize a business that’s growing, that’s here locally, and that has potential, and that has given us a lot of drive. We’ve just actually commissioned a new facility that is a 20,000 sq. ft. facility right here in Noblesville, and a lot of it is to do with the growth that is happening in Noblesville. And the city of Noblesville has given us a lot of support. They’ve helped us from day one to find the grounds at the new facility, incentives to get the new facility going for a company like ours and reaching out globally happens more easily when you have the local support of the community.

 

Continued (Gerry Dick) 16:35

Very good. Ajay, how about you, as you look at the future here for your company, but also for the city of Noblesville and that ability to attract people and grow the economy?

 

(Ajay Patel) 16:43

Absolutely. As you mentioned early, it’s a very unique industry that we are in, but an industry that’s rapidly growing. You know, consumers want natural products, and so we are right smack in the middle of that space. And what we have done in terms of the innovation really has set the footprint for the future as a company.

And then you talk about the new facility that we have just created. And the facility is an open concept facility, a more collaborative work style. We’ve got a wellness building there, where employees can come in and exercise, we have got a walking trail around, we’ve also got an R&D laboratory there, and some warehousing. So, I think from a standpoint of the culture that we would like to create and promote in the future, for the employees that work there, and also for the city in terms of the talent that we can attract at the universities that are around here; the Purdue and IU.

Because we do need talent, especially with the unique business model that we have. It’s very important that we find the right talent and having the facilities that we have created, we really hope that will attract the talent needed to grow in this space here.