(upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot Of Ag".

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

I started at a podcast, what's led into an XM radio show, which led into a national television show, which led into me being right here today.

But today, today is not about me.

Today is about Elizabeth and Ben Omet.

How are you guys doing?

- Hi.

- Good.

How are you.

- It's Good.

I'm always happy when we get to bring out the couch.

Makes me feel like a big deal here in PBS, when we gotta make the guys work.

- Hopefully you still feel that way after the interview.

- I'll probably be fired after this.

You guys are from Lombard, Illinois.

So for the people around here in Peoria, where is that?

- I'm from Texas, So geography is Texas and not Texas.

I'll let Ben answer what part Illinois that is.

- Yes, because he's from closer.

- Yeah.

He's from France, so.

- That's right.

I know the geography better than the person from the US actually.

- Unfortunately it's true.

- So, Lombard is right outside of Naperville, Western suburbs of Chicago.

- Okay.

All right.

So obviously you have an accent.

So where are you from originally?

- I'm from France.

City in the Northwest called Le Mans.

It's about 120 miles west of Paris.

It's not a big town but it's really famous for one thing, is the car race.

24 hours of Le Mans.

Every year one week and- - The car race?

They race for 24 hours?

- They race for 24 hours, yes.

- Around the city?

- It's a big...

It's track in the town, yes.

- Gotcha.

Does it bother you that all the women just swooned when he started talking?

- Not at all.

- I'm not gonna answer this one.

My wife is right there, so.

- And you're from Texas.

- Yes - What part?

- Houston.

- Okay.

And you both are here...

It's like a joke.

It's like a French guy and a Texan walk into a bar and somehow they end up living in Lombard.

It's not much of a punchline.

- Classic story.

- Yeah.

Well, how'd you guys meet.

- So.

- Well, I came in the US a little over 10 years ago now and I was supposed to stay for 18 months.

I had a contract for 18 months to develop the family business that my father started over 30 years ago now, in France.

We're in 14 countries now.

- And- - He got really unlucky and met this blonde from Texas and- - So at the end of it.

- He met you?

- At the end of... Yeah, we're talking about my wife here and at the end of the 18th month, I never left.

And now it's 10- - I mean, did the authorities know this?

That you just came here and stayed?

- I smuggled him right in.

- Is that what it is?

- Yeah.

- Once you get married though, you could have been on that other show the 90 Day.

- Fiance?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, we did it but they cut us.

- Yeah we weren't interesting enough.

- Yeah.

- You weren't fighting enough.

- Not enough drama.

- Yeah.

- So where'd you meet?

- So we were actually friends first and we- - Through friends of friends, yeah.

Cuz you had your own business at the time.

Home healthcare.

And I mean, I was working for my dad developing the business over there.

But I came all by myself.

So I didn't know anybody.

And you know, when you don't know anybody, you just kind of go out there and meet some other people.

And that's how we just connected.

- So, and we...

He was originally supposed to go back and run the companies in Europe with his father and his father said if it were me I would stay and you can start a life together here and- - Oh.

- My father came like one month-.

- It was an arranged marriage.

- It is.

- Traded me for two goats, so.

- Two goats?

- Yeah, two.

- I mean that's not bad.

- We offered one at first, but she's tough in negotiation.

- So your dad's business.

So tell me what that is.

- So we wholesale a lot of different products, mostly in plastic.

We are in the plastics industry.

We are manufacture some products.

We are reseller on some others.

Most of our business is in construction.

Moisture barriers, air barriers, like ground protection for new construction, new houses, things like that.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And most of our business here in the US is about agriculture.

So any baling supplies that includes bale wrap film, net wrap, baler twine, silage bags, you know, silage covers, tarps.

We do a large volume of those in Europe as well, but here, we don't even do the construction.

We are really exclusively focused on the ag industry.

- Only in agriculture.

- Yes.

- So not everybody watching this has an ag background.

So baling.

So you're talking like hay bales, you're talking silage, You're even talking like when they store the corn into plastic bags, correct?

So along those lines.

Yeah.

- Yes.

It's exactly that.

Yes.

- The name of the company is Protexia.

- That's correct.

Yeah.

- That clever.

Prote-xia.

- Who came up with that?

- You wouldn't even imagine how long we thought about the name.

And we thought Protexia at the time, when we started the company, - Yeah.

- we were still in Texas.

So the "Tex" is also for Texas, you know?

- Oh Pro-Texas-ia.

- And then the company that my father started from nothing 30 years ago in France from our small town is called Patenia.

So Protexia kind of sounds the same as well, so it's kind of a reboot for the second generation.

- Oh.

- So yeah.

We love the name.

It's really cool.

- And our supplies protect whatever they're bagging, covering or baling.

- What, you don't have to sell m I'm all ready to buy stuff.

- You are buying something after this, right?

- Well, since I don't bale anything.

Buy you can cover anything, right?

- Anything you need.

- For sure.

- Yeah.

So this is like a sample, right?

Not the cow, but this is like a sample of something that you guys... Now do you make it or just sell this?

- So this one, we work with the manufacturer out of Austria.

- Out of Austria?

- That's right.

So we don't have the factory to make this specific product.

- Okay.

And what is this?

- So this is a breathable hay tarp.

It's probably one of the things I get most excited about because there's really nothing like this to cover your hay.

In traditional tarps, when you put 'em over something, they catch the humidity and water underneath.

So it ruins the bales somewhat.

And this is breathable.

The wind doesn't catch it.

And it's UV proof and it doesn't freeze and it's lightweight.

And the biggest thing is, is it doesn't rip because it's a non woven textile, so it's not a whole bunch of strings all sewn together.

It's one string that makes the entire tarp.

- [Rob] Okay.

- So I always tell people.

- So I mean, does the water get through there?

- If it's at an angle, no.

The water runs off all day.

If it is loose somewhere and water can pool, then it can eventually make its way through.

- Exactly.

- Exactly.

- Yeah, you don't want that.

- But it's nice because the water can still evaporate out of it.

So even if there's ground moisture or anything like that, it has somewhere to escape from.

And I always at trade shows when we go out to different places to meet with customers.

I always tell people, "If you can rip it, I'll buy you a steak."

- If you can rip this, you can buy a...

I mean it does...I mean, I can see through it.

- So it's incredibly strong and I'll offer the same to you right now.

A big fat steak.

- Okay.

- Try your hardest, sir.

- Don't pull a muscle.

- Oh, stretching is key.

All right.

So just like this.

- Anywhere you want.

- Looking into my fourth wall camera.

All right, here we go.

- Yes, sir.

- Steak's gonna taste so good.

Okay.

I stretched it.

- You did stretch.

It was a good stretch.

That'll get you a chicken nugget maybe.

- I'm pretty sure I ripped it.

- Judge, judge.

- I mean, honestly, I mean you could... Yeah.

I'm not seeing any rip.

I did stretch it though, and I feel pretty good about that.

- You should.

Not very many people can stretch it.

- Oh now you're just.

- That was a good performance.

- All right.

Can I use it to wash my water?

- Yes.

- Clean my water up.

- It's just gonna wipe it around because it's water resistant.

- This is... you're not really gonna do well on the things where you spill stuff and then you put it up.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's... impressively strong.

- So they're nice.

and they're awesome to handle.

And I usually get calls from the wives to tell me how much less stressful the tarps were because they're always the one that get the call from the husbands that are like, "The tarp's flopping in the wind.

I need you to go tie it down."

- Oh, really?

So the wives get to do all that.

And what's with the cow here.

- So whenever we started shipping products out to farms and ranches, and we get the big pallets of bale wrap or baler twine or silage and grain bags, and they get it, and there's nothing ever super special when it arrives.

And I wanted people to be happy and smile when they were getting their Protexia supply.

So every order going out, I hide a little cow somewhere on the pallet for them so that they can find it.

And it's a stress reliever.

So you can throw it at someone when you're stressed out.

That's how they work.

- Okay.

Well, nothing makes people happier than a stress relieving cow.

- Yes, cuz not all cows are frustrating.

- Has she ever thrown em at you?

- Sorry.

- Has she ever thrown em at you?

- Oh yeah.

- This doesn't look fatal.

- We had a lot of...

The thing is we're family owned.

A hundred percent family run and we have most of our customers are family businesses as well.

Most farms are family businesses.

- [Rob] Ah, - So it's something that they can share as a family, give to the kids, you know.

We get a lot of calls from people, not even about the products they receive, about those.

- They're like, "You only put one, we have two kids."

- I have four kids.

You need to send more.

- Cuz everybody's throwing 'em.

- So we have three kids as well and they have herd at home.

- Oh they do.

- They manage their own herd.

Yeah.

- Okay.

Do they throw 'em too?

- Oh yeah.

Is it okay to throw stuff at people you work with?

- I think so.

- Is it?

- Depends on the HR department.

I'm the HR department of Protexia, so.

- I'll take my cow throwing to him.

- I got him too.

That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

- I'm gonna need you to sign a waiver cuz that was a Protexia cow.

- All right.

Let's let's talk about this.

Because what's so cool.

What sets you guys apart?

And what I originally was very thrilled, when I learned about is you got stuff like this.

Hay, the corn and the bags, the critters get into 'em.

You guys actually have protection in here against that.

Explain that to me.

- Not in here, but in the plastic.

Ben's father actually created a product that repels birds, rodents and raccoons for two years in your field and we put it in the silage and grain bags and in the bale wrap film.

I'll let you talk a little more about that.

- Yeah.

It's actually really cool.

It's it all started with our neighbor back in France where I grew up, it's not...

I'm next to a city but it's like surrounded by fields and farms.

And so my dad was talking to our neighbor and he was like, he couldn't understand why he was buying.

He wasn't a hay producer.

He was buying his bales.

You know, his wrapped bales.

And he was like, you got just 20 head it's here in your shed.

I mean in your, where your cattle is, why do you buy that many?

You don't need that many.

And it was like every year I need to, because I know I'm gonna have some waste because of birds and mice that get into the plastic.

Because the fresh cut hay, I mean, fresh silage is a very attractive smell for mice and rats and birds.

- [Rob] And people.

- And people too.

- [Rob] Oh yeah.

- So they peck holes in the plastic.

And the whole point of wrapping is to seal from the oxygen.

- Yeah.

Otherwise it molds, you know.

So if you have a hole... even if it's like a hole like this, like a quarter size from a bird, you can be sure you have to throw away a quarter of the whole bale.

You know, because the bacteria spread.

- That much really?

- Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Some people will tell you they feed everything, but it's not the best.

It's not good for the cows.

- Sure.

Yeah.

- So anyway, and my dad is a person that likes to understand how things work.

That's why he's so interested in the manufacturing side of the business and how to fix problems.

And this problem is as old as bale wrap, there's never a solution because it's easy to put a pesticide in a plastic film, but in ag you can't cuz it's in the environment, it's the cows down next to it, the people are next to it.

You cannot put anything toxic.

So we found the solution.

We have an additive that's made out of essential oils that effectively repels.

- Essential oils.

- Yeah.

- Like the stuff you buy.

- Its it's a blend of six- - Your wife's friend stops by and tries to sell that.

That's what you're putting in this stuff.

- It's not exactly the same because otherwise, they wouldn't like it.

What they buy.

- Yeah.

I like that peppermint though.

That's a lovely smell.

Anyway, I interrupted you.

- No, you're fine.

It repels effectively the rats, the mice, the birds and- - It's become more and more common to take one of the corn.

Right?

Usually you harvest a corn, you put it in a bin or whatever, while they're putting them in these giant bags.

A lot of times when you go down, you know, the interstate, you'll see these giant white bags, a lot of times that's full of corn.

- That's right.

- Well of course, critters want all over it.

And once you do that, it's the same thing.

You're gonna let air into there.

It's gonna get spoilage.

So why isn't every bag made from you guys?

I mean, you should think every bag should have this in it.

- It should and long term, that's the goal, you know.

But right now, this is a product that we invented.

It's inception.

Goes back to 2015.

So it's very new.

It's very recent, you know?

We did two years of research, field testing, of course our whole philosophy is quality, so we don't want to put something into the market that, you know, we don't work or something like that.

We are the only company in the world that has this product that's certified by the European Chemical Agency.

So we did our own testing, then submitted it.

Then they did their own testing.

And we got the accreditation only two years ago in Europe.

- In Europe you can't just attest that something does something.

So if you say, "Hey, this repels birds, rodents, and raccoons for two years.

", you can't say that and sell something unless you have the proof that it actually in fact does that.

So we're the only company in the world that has a plastic that does this.

That actually has of proof and the accreditation from the European Chemical Agency.

Which is really cool.

- Yeah.

- Now it's all about getting the word out, because when you explain the benefits to the actual users, the farmers, it's a no brainer.

It's like, I call it cheap insurance, you know?

- Well, that's the thing.

All right.

I mean, do you guys have an army of marketing people for this?

Or how do you let people know about it?

- We do.

It's right here on this couch.

- You're looking at them.

- It's a sad looking army there.

- Hey.

- So it's just you two.

- Mh.

- Yes.

- Okay.

How do you go about that?

I mean, do you just like stop on a farm king and then go, "Hey, you guys should sell our bale wrap instead of the junk you're selling."

- Well, we actually, in the very beginning, when we started, we met with a lot of the biggest distributors of these types of supplies in the US.

And I mean, one of them even laughed us out of his office and said, "You will never sell anything here in the US because farms and ranches, they want what's cheap.

They don't care of about quality."

And so we literally started selling roll by roll direct to farm and ranches.

Our very first order was from a little couple in Michigan that ordered two rolls of bale wrap and a couple schools of twine.

They're still our customer today.

And we- - So that's not very much right?

- No, no, no.

I mean it just depends on their operation.

Every farm needs- - I mean like a bale wrap, how many bales are we talking?

- So typically one roll of plastic will wrap roughly 22, 23 round bales four by five.

- Okay.

So it's yeah, you're not making money.. You're not getting rich off that order.

- No, no, no.

Its not a lot, no.

But at the time, I mean we celebrated.

It was our first one.

We get so happy every year when they call back here.

- Yeah - Do you really?

- Yeah.

But now we have a little over a hundred dealers in the US and some more in Canada, and we grow every year and we work with people that have the same mentality as us.

Like we will always, no matter how big our company gets, we'll fill any size order because we want every farm, no matter how big or small, to have access to good supplies that work at the end of the day, that are gonna save them some time and money, you know.

Get 'em home a little bit earlier with a little less stress and that is what we wanna do here.

We wanna have something different and not everyone was willing in the beginning to support that idea.

So we just kind of went in on our own.

- A hundred dealers is quite a bit.

- Yeah, we're really fortunate.

And we don't actually spend a lot on marketing or anything like that.

Most of our growth is from word of mouth.

Farmers and ranchers telling their neighbors and their family.

And we've just been so, so blessed with the growth that we've had I feel.

- You mentioned farmers being cheap and we are.

We're very cheap people.

But here's the thing.

I think I'm not alone in my philosophy.

You find what you want and then you go out and you find the cheapest way to get it.

So it's like, we don't go out and we buy the cheapest seed.

We don't go out and we buy the cheapest fertilizer.

We know what we want and then we go out and we try to, you know, get the best deal.

So it's...

Even I imagine yours is gonna be more expensive than the cheapest thing out there on a market because it's got more into it and that.

Still, the benefit to the farmer producer I think would well be worth it.

- Absolutely.

And our products are really unique or so, in their characteristics, you know.

This breathable hay tarp like that, it's completely different than any other hay tarp that's on the market currently in the US, you know?

- [Rob] Do you ever use the blue tarps?

- Oh yeah.

- [Rob] Those are nice.

- Blue tarp, vinyl- - If you feel like you have some shingles go off your roof or something, you just tuck that thing up or it's good for three, four years.

- The... - Just saying.

- Until the wind blows it and then it rips off.

- [Rob] Yes.

It's out with the trampoline in the field.

What's your biggest seller?

- The breathable hay tarps were... because I think that in the past couple years, the cost of lumber has gone up so much and you can't get people out to build barns and stuff.

So people were looking for alternative ways to store hay in their field.

And we actually had a lot of people call back and say, "I'm not gonna build a barn now, because I can use this land after and you know, it's not a taxed building that I put on my farm, and I can my hay around and store this for three to five years."

And it's lightweight.

I mean there's small.

You can store 64 by 5 round bales stack 3, 2, 1.

It weighs 35 pounds.

- Really.

That's pretty light.

- It's big.

Its cumbersome.

- How long does this last?

- It has a three year warranty but if you store it properly, it can last a lot longer than that.

It's storage and taking care of it, making sure that, you know, you don't leave it in the bed of your truck or out in the field when you're not using it.

- Now you're talking a lot of work.

- I have to put it away?

- I know.

Oh, I have to actually do something.

But you see these stacks of bales everywhere.

And this is something that can just... Do you have any idea of like how much longer it can protect.

If you just put it out there with nothing compared to putting it out there with this on top.

- I mean, you have to think.

When it gets rain, snow, wind.

- There was a lot of studies that were done about this.

So for round bales, for example, that are stored outside with no protection, if they are round bales with baler twine, you can be sure you're gonna waste roughly 30, 35 percent of the dry matter of the bale.

If they have net wrap, it's a little bit less.

It's still between 10 and 15%.

- Which is quite a bit.

- It it's huge.

It's huge.

- Yeah.

And that is not in case of extreme weather event.

You know, like if you have a hurricane or thunderstorm that really pours for many days at a time.

It's another story.

But with those, it's nothing.

It's like... we like to say it's barn quality hay without the barn.

- It's hard to start a business.

You guys know this probably more than anybody.

What do you think like the hardest?

If someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, I've got this product.

I wanna start this business sell in agriculture.

", what advice do you give them?

- Just work hard and don't give up and try to be helpful and solve problems and be focused on your customer.

I mean, every year we just try to get better at everything that we do and focus really on what our customers need and- - If you're into selling products, of course, it's important that we're to have good products, you know.

Something that either is really high quality compared to what's out there.

Which is the case for us on our other standard products like our net wrap, our baler twine.

Or something that's really innovative that solves a problem like those or other best seller products are the repellent film, of course.

We have worldwide exclusivity on that.

Nobody else can have it and it really helps the farmers.

That's why we love the most about them, you know?

But otherwise, I would say the customer service, of course.

I mean, for us, we own and run the business.

There's not a moment where we don't live and breathe our business, you know?

Like, we take phone calls on Sunday nights.

We stay up responding to emails.

I mean, anything you can imagine, we've done it, so.

- And we're happy to.

And we're lucky to, you know?

- Well, that's the exact right attitude that I think a lot of people don't have sometimes when they start a business.

But if people want to find out more about Protexia and what you guys do, where do they go?

- To our website.

- That's Protexia?

- It's it's, protexia-plast.

Like the beginning of plastic.com.

- Okay.

You guys don't have TikTok?

- They won't let me on.

- Why?

- I'm in this weird place where I'm like too young for life alert but too old for the TikTok.

- Well, he could be on it.

That's the thing.

You being from the south, him being from France.

I mean, what's what do you find is the harder accent to understand?

- Ooh.

It's a toss up.

- [Rob] Really is, isn't it?

Yeah.

- Sometimes people get nervous when they call and he answers and they think that they're talking to like a call service.

And then he hands the phone to me.

And they're just as confused.

- For people who call us, we don't have a call center.

It's me.

I'm in the US, okay?

- Well it's very cool what you guys have built.

It's very impressive.

- Thank you.

- I think anybody that has done any sort of business building, done any type of sales, knows how impressive it is what you guys have built.

And I gotta say, the products are superior.

- Thank you.

- Well you're welcome.

I don't have my cow though.

- You did throw it at someone a little while ago.

- I was kind of expecting him to throw it back.

(laughing) We gotta find it first.

- Good catch.

You just threw that at a girl?

Good catch.

That wasn't all that fast.

That wasn't all that fast.

- Elizabeth and Ben Omet.

Thank you guys very much for making- - Thank you for having us.

- A very superior product.

Give 'em a call.

Protexia.

Congratulations guys.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.