Sprint Horticulture is a family owned and operated business that was founded in 2001. Specialising in the distribution of ornamental young plants to the domestic and international market, Sprint Horticulture continues to expand its facilities and presence in the marketplace.
Their mission is to encompass the core values of quality, integrity and innovation while bringing exciting ideas and products to customers and consumers alike.
We caught up with the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Craig Bryson, to learn about how plant breeder’s rights help deliver better outcomes for the company and its stakeholders.
Insights from Sprint Horticulture
We started in 2001, and the main focus of our business some 20 years ago was that we would represent breeders from overseas. So it was important and it was important for the breeders, important for us as well, that we introduce protected varieties into the marketplace in order to establish a fixed presence, a strong presence in the market.
Question: What is the purpose of a plant growing trial?
Growing trials are critical in the PBR process. It's critical to determine whether there's even opportunity in the marketplace for a new variety. And so we have to grow it beside comparative varieties and see what benefits there are in the new variety. Our customers who are growers, wholesale growers primarily, they want to know that there's benefit in the attributes of the new variety.
So, we use our growing trial information to convey to growers why they should grow the variety and what benefit there is for paying the royalty or license fee.
Question: What is the role of a Qualified Person?
So, working with a Qualified Person is really important to us. You know, we could like internalise or take some of those responsibilities or actions inside our company, but it's better for us to outsource that whole experience with the plant breeder's rights office and work with a QP.
The reason for that is sometimes the QP is working with other breeders and has a greater knowledge of comparative varieties, you know that we should have in our growing trials. And the other thing is we rely on the QP to conduct or perform all the statistical analysis.
Question: What are the benefits of plant breeder’s rights?
The benefits are that we have, we can go to market with something that is usually exclusive to us and that exclusivity means that we'll put more effort into the product. It's better for us, better for the breeder and better for the grower.
Please note: case studies are examples of the way some organisations have chosen to manage their IP. These studies don't provide advice and your experience may be different.