Top Honours for Bayer Inc. - Four Years In A Row!

The Globe and Mail Features Bayer Inc. As One Of Canada's Top 100 Employers For 2011

TORONTO, Oct. 15 /CNW/ - Bayer Inc. announced today that it was selected as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers for 2011 by Mediacorp Canada Inc., featured today in The Globe and Mail. Bayer Inc. was also recognized as a Top 100 Employer in 2008, 2009 and 2010, making this the fourth consecutive win for the organization!

"It is an incredible honour to be acknowledged as one of Canada's leading employers for four consecutive years," said Philip Blake, President & CEO of Bayer Inc. "Bayer listens to employee feedback and works at improving its programs to better meet employee needs. Congratulations to all Bayer Inc. employees on this great achievement!"

Now in its 11^th year, Canada's Top 100 Employers competition is managed by Mediacorp Canada Inc. who select the top employers featured in The Globe and Mail. To develop this year's list, Mediacorp editors examined the recruitment histories of over 75,000 employers across Canada and invited approximately 10,000 employers to apply for the designation.

"Despite challenging economic times, we've seen strong interest by employers in maintaining and improving the working conditions they offer to employees," says Richard Yerema, Managing Editor for the Canada's Top 100 Employers project. "Many of this year's winners have learned from past economic slowdowns that you can do lasting damage to an organization by scaling back on benefits that are important to employees."

The Bayer Inc. initiatives below are just some of the many ways the company differentiates itself and demonstrates the organization's commitment to its employees:

CareerFlexx enables every Bayer employee to build bridges between the opportunities at Bayer and their aspirations. The Bayer intranet houses an interactive guide to CareerFlexx - somewhat like a software wizard - that guides employees through the iterative, ever-evolving, five-step process.

Life at Work provides Bayer employees with a welcoming work environment including our quiet room and fitness centre. Employees develop their skills through professional development classes as well as personal development through a program called LifeSpeak, which offers a range of online courses including personal financing and work-life harmony.

Corporate Responsibility involvement at Bayer Inc. has increased by 100 per cent in the last three years. We partner with both United Way and North Kipling Junior Middle School (NK) in Toronto. Our involvement with this high needs school includes mentoring, volunteering for breakfast and homework programs, job shadowing, Science and Technology Day support, and a sports clinic with students and Bayer's employee hockey team.

Recently, Bayer Inc. announced a new initiative with NK to provide access to engaging, hands-on learning with the first-ever Adopt-a-School program in partnership with the Ontario Science Centre (OSC). Developed as part of the OSC's commitment to ensuring access for all visitors, the program will give students from NK the full OSC experience.

About Bayer Inc.

Bayer Inc. (Bayer) is a Canadian subsidiary of Bayer AG, an international research-based group with core businesses in health care, crop science and innovative materials. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Bayer Inc. operates the Bayer Group's HealthCare and MaterialScience businesses in Canada. Bayer CropScience Inc., headquartered in Calgary, Alberta operates as a separate legal entity in Canada. Together, the companies play a vital role in improving the quality of life for Canadians - producing products that fight diseases, protecting crops and animals, and developing high-performance materials for applications in numerous areas of daily life. Canadian Bayer facilities include the Toronto headquarters and offices in Montréal and Calgary.

Bayer Inc. has approximately 800 employees across Canada and had sales of $853 million CDN in 2009. Globally, the Bayer Group had sales of over 31 billion Euro in 2009. Bayer Inc. invested approximately $50 million CDN in research and development in 2009. Worldwide, the Bayer Group spent the equivalent of over 2.7 billion Euro in 2009 in R&D. For more information, go to www.bayer.ca.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.ca. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

For further information:

or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Laura Burns
Senior Business Communications Partner
Bayer Inc.
[phone]
[email protected]