# KWS

KWS is a Corporate Investor based in Einbeck, Germany.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Corporate Investor
- **Headquarters:** Einbeck, Germany
- **Region:** Europe
- **Address:** Grimsehlstr. 31, 37555 Einbeck, Germany
- **Founded:** 1856
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** www.kws.de
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/kwstn1

## About

KWS SAAT is an innovative international seed specialist with a broad crop portfolio. It develops high-quality varieties for productive and sustainable harvests and is one of the world's leading plant breeding companies. The company works closely with farmers and offers regional advisory support and digital myKWS tools.

## Sectors

- AgriTech & FoodTech

## Offices

- St. Louis, Missouri, USA

## People

- Dr. Felix Büchting — CEO
- Andreas J. Büchting — Supervisory Board Member
- Dr. Marie Schnell — Supervisory Board Member

## Questions

### Who controls KWS, and how is governance structured?

KWS is controlled by the Büchting family, with Dr. Felix Büchting as CEO and Andreas J. Büchting serving on the Supervisory Board. Two additional family shareholders — the Tessner family via Tessner Beteiligungs GmbH (owning 15.4%) and the Arend Oetker family, represented by Dr. Marie Schnell — hold significant minority stakes. This multi-family, concentrated ownership structure embeds a patient-capital ethos into a publicly listed entity.

### How does KWS allocate capital as an investor?

KWS does not operate as a conventional institutional allocator with an external portfolio. Its capital deployment is almost entirely operational: it invests roughly 19% of annual revenue into plant breeding research and development, maintains gene banks, builds breeding stations, and acquires or divests business lines — such as the January 2024 sale of its South American corn business to GDM. Intellectual property and germplasm are its primary stores of long-term asset value.

### What is KWS's relationship with Limagrain?

KWS and Limagrain, a French farmer-owned seed cooperative, are long-term joint-venture partners in AgReliant Genetics, a North American field-crop breeding company headquartered in Westfield, Indiana. The partnership gives KWS direct exposure to the US Corn Belt's seed market alongside one of Europe's other major independent breeders, combining germplasm pools and R&D resources without full consolidation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T15:07:12.582Z

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