SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Nov. 4, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Raven Industries' (Nasdaq: RAVN ) precision agriculture group, the Applied Technology Division (ATD), recently restructured and expanded its sales, business development, marketing and support group in an effort to improve the customer experience and create a more focused sales and service approach for each of their channels. According to Michelle M. Lavallee, global leader of sales and marketing and oversees this team, "As our OEM relationships continue to grow and represent an increasingly significant portion of our revenue, we felt it was important to create a new group of technical sales people devoted to this channel to help generate new solutions as more and more precision equipment is now installed at the factory. Brent Bast, a ten-year Raven veteran is leading this team, and we have a lot of confidence in his capabilities."
ATD also added a new group devoted to global business development. "As international markets continue to expand and new segments of the food industry begin to see the value of precision agriculture and Raven's advanced technology, we needed a more focused approach," said Lavallee. Jeff Rohlena, previously international sales manager has transitioned into this key business development function as have Kirk Appleford and Colin Pollock.
Denton Schwiesow, former domestic sales manager, has taken on additional international responsibilities which include managing Raven's aftermarket channel with sales in over fifty countries throughout the world. In addition, Raven has created a divisional approach to this market with five regional territory managers who include Jeff Speckman (midwest), Tim Kunkel (west), Don Bruns (east), and Jason Wierenga (international). Canadian leadership is in the recruitment process. "Our aftermarket channel is what helped build our division to what it is today, and these changes give our account managers more time to spend with each customer, helping them build their business."
Ryan Molitor was promoted to marketing manager and Micaela Greenfield to customer support manager. "Our customer support team has been expanded to ensure each of our OEMs and dealers have an assigned customer service team to help with ordering, fulfillment or to answer any questions they may have. Marketing and customer support help create closer relationships with our customer base and improve communications," said Lavallee.
About Raven Industries, Inc: Since 1956, Raven Industries has designed and manufactured high quality, high-value technical products. Raven is publicly traded on NASDAQ (RAVN) and has earned an international reputation for innovation, product quality, high performance, and unmatched service. Raven's purpose is to solve great challenges in areas of safety, feeding the world, energy independence, and resource preservation. To realize this purpose, we utilize our strengths in engineering, manufacturing, and technological innovation to serve the precision agriculture, high performance specialty films, aerospace, and electronic manufacturing services markets. Visit www.RavenInd.com for more information.
Ryan Molitor Marketing Supervisor Raven Industries 605.335.0179
