The booze and the bees: British firm's all-natural invention to save the wine trade Eden's botrytis product, 3AEY, is not only derived entirely from plants, it's also cheap to manufacture and just as effective as toxic chemical variants. And it has one other important feature: it's totally harmless to bees. "That's an extremely important tick-box," says Eden's chief executive, Sean Smith, who joined the firm from the traditional chemical industry two months ago. All of our active ingredients are EU approved. We spent five years, from 2008 to 2013, proving that we don't kill bees. Neonicotinoids, the pesticides currently used to protect crop seeds, were banned by the EU Commission for their effects on honey bee populations. That ban is set to expire this year, and some of the biggest chemical companies in the world are lobbying heavily to have them reinstated. Bayer and Syngenta face losing millions if the ban remains intact. Crops too, if left unprotected, could be severely affected, creating food shortages, the companies argue. By licensing Eden's fully-regulated, bee-friendly pesticides, corporations like Bayer can protect their businesses in Europe, albeit with slightly depressed margins. At least that's what Smith hopes. "The intensity of farming isn't going to decrease and these companies must find sustainable ways to protect crops," he says. Eden already has a route in to Bayer, providing encapsulation technology to Bayer Animal Health for the manufacture of dog shampoos and flea and tick products. "The terpenes kill those bugs too," says Abrey. Bayer Animal Health is developing a series of pet products to launch to the North American market next year. The licensing model is a lucrative one: Eden received an upfront fee of $100,000 from Bayer Animal Health for the option to use its technology. Further milestone payments - $300,000 upon the sales of the products, for example - are payable, and Eden makes a royalty of between 3pc and 5pc on every bottle sold. Eden currently has seven such licensing deals in the works. "We're the Intel of the ad chem industry," explains Abrey. The applications for Eden's technology are manifold. It could be used to make the smell of perfume linger longer on your skin, to aid wound care, for cleaning products, odour neutralisers, and as a preservative in food. Its clever tech also uses a waste product as its starting point. The company takes spent yeast from the brewing industry, cleans out the yeast cells and fills them with active plant extracts, such as tea tree turpines. This means double the green credentials, which could count towards their customers" corporate social responsibility efforts. Eden CEO Sean Smith visits the Chapel Down winery, where his pesticides could be used in future One deal with pesticide manufacturer Lachlan is currently on the table that could result in Eden's products being used to protect all the flowers grown for UK supermarkets in Kenya. "Lachlan is chomping at the bit for a green alternative that's cost effective," says Abrey. The flower farms it supplies work with Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury's, all of them. Those supermarkets can then say that their flowers aren't being treated with nasty chemicals but use nature's own defence. It's a great PR line. It's taken nine long years to get Eden to this point: actually making money. In its early days, the 10-year-old firm was supported by high net worth individuals. Four out of the top 10 richest Norwegians have put cash into the company. Eden also raised £1.1m on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market in February 2013 to help fund the regulatory approval process - the company is currently waiting for the final sign off for its products to be used in southern Europe. In total, the company has spent £12m developing the technology. From now on, costs will be kept to a minimum, however. "Our licensees are doing all of the hard work," says Abrey. Overheads at the firm stand at £1m a year, he adds. That's pretty reasonable compared to our peers in the market. There are competing players dealing with bio-pesticides and encapsulation technology, though Eden is not worried. "The rival encapsulation technologies are synthetic, which means they have to be built from the ground up," says Smith. And the bio-pesticide market is very complex. Some companies use mosquitos to combat pests. But most of our customers prefer to deal with a chemical than an animal - it's what they're used to. According to Abrey, it would take a competitor "many years" to catch up with Eden. "By then, we'll be in tens of industries, licensing our IP while retaining our master patent," he claims. It's a pretty sweet model.