Samuel Shine invented and patented the Samco three-in-one machine in 1997 which enabled farmers to plant and grow forage maize under a degradable plastic or mulch film in cooler climates.

Since then, this firm has grown significantly with the majority of its sales now generated outside of Ireland, in many countries across Europe and even into New Zealand.

Last year, Samco completed a deal in China for Samco’s biodegradable maize planting technology with the Dupont business Pioneer and its joint venture company Dunhuang Seed Pioneer Hi-Bred.

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Samco has shareholder funds of €2.3m (up from €1.53m the previous year), net current assets of €2.14m (up from €1.3m) and bank debt of €1.2m in 2012 (up from €448,000).

Exporter award

Last year, Samco also won the ‘Best Exporter Award’ in the Midwest Region Business Awards.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Sam Shine said: “We have continued to invest in R&D and focus on export markets which has resulted in a significant increase in sales over the past two years.

“Today, 80% of our sales are exported with increasing sales opportunities in existing markets but also in new markets. The scarcity of water is opening up new opportunities for our Samco three-in-one machine in hotter regions like Italy.”

Samco’s main export markets are France, Russia, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, Japan and China.

Surprisingly, northern Italy is now also opening up as an exciting new market where farmers use Samco’s plastic system to preserve moisture levels as irrigation becomes increasingly expensive in many such regions.

BACKGROUND

Sam Shine was a dairy farmer in 1991, milking 120 cows. Over the years, he has developed a large scale agricultural contracting business, currently employing 33 staff.

Despite Ireland’s innate advantages in growing grass, Shine identified the annual challenges and limitations of grass silage and foresaw increased competition for his agricultural contracting business.

Therefore, having seen the work being done by Dr George Keane in UCD on maize, he realised this crop offered many advantages to Irish farmers, given its rich energy content and tolerance for heavy slurry application as a fertilizer.

However, Ireland’s damp and wet weather posed an immediate challenge for maize, one that Sam Shine was determined to overcome.

In 1997, Samco Agricultural manufacturing Ltd (Samco) was set up, specifically focused on all aspects associated with growing maize. The patent for Samco’s three-in-one machine cost £100,000.

Samco continued to work on developing biodegradable plastics with an Austrian firm, Integrated Packaging (IP), who had a plastic factory in Gorey, Co Wexford, until 2005.

While much work was being done on seed varieties, no work was being done on plastic, other than that pursued by Samco itself. Eventually, Enterprise Ireland introduced the Shines to the plastics team at the Polymer Research Centre at Athlone IT, where together they developed a more biodegradable plastic.

Now that they had worked out how to formulate their unique style of plastic, their next challenge was to find a factory that could make it on a large scale.

Ultimatley, they found a large state-owned factory (1,000 employees) in China that started making the plastic. Samco shipped all the ingredients out to China to make this patented plastic.

Family business

Samco remains very much a family business, with Sam’s four sons and one daughter involved, as is Sam’s sister. Sam’s mother, Doreen, is seen in many ways as the chairperson for the daily business meetings that take place in her kitchen.

Samco now employs over 30 staff in Adare, another 27 in China and two in France. Having recently received planning permission from Limerick Co Council, the company plans to build a plastic production factory in Adare and move their plastic production from China to Adare.

With wages at just €1/hour in China, why move production from China to Ireland, I asked.

“The main cost associated with producing plastic is the ingredients which we had to export over to China which are hit with a 6.5% import levy and a further 6.5% on re-entry to the EU, plus VAT,” Sam explained.

He believes such EU levies will increase significantly over the coming years, hence the decision to locate their plastic plant in Adare.

The Future

Today, many view Samco as a machinery firm, when in fact they really are a firm developing and selling a wide variety of biodegradable plastics all around the world.

Almost 90% of their sales are attributed to the sale of plastic and just 20% of their sales are based in Ireland.

The success or failure of Samco ultimately rested on developing a suitable type of plastic to overcome local climatic conditions, not just in Ireland but in the 15-plus countries they are currently selling into.