Managing director is optimistic for the farming industry

I grew up in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. I really enjoyed languages at school and I studied in Paris for a language degree with a view to becoming a translator. Then I had a complete change of heart and went into retail instead. 

My father died when I was still at school so I spent a lot of time with an uncle who owned a couple of shops. I’d grown up in and around shops and behind a till, so maybe I was always going to end up in retail. 

After stints with Morrisons and Safeway I joined the Co-op where I was encouraged to study for an MBA from Leeds University and later a master’s diploma at the University of Leicester. 

Eventually, I was put in charge of the Co-op’s farms business, Farmcare, continuing at the helm after Farmcare was acquired by the Wellcome Trust. 

Before joining Carr’s Billington I was interim commercial transformation director at Kelda Group, the parent company of Yorkshire Water, a company with well-documented performance issues. 

I look at it as helping businesses when they have lost their way. I approach it from the standpoint, how does a business navigate to a better place and what does it need to carry on for the future? 

Carr’s Billington is a diverse business with lots of different operating activities and it has huge opportunity for our colleagues and customers. We’ve only gone into e-commerce in the last 12 months, launching our online business in January. 

There’s a huge amount of expertise within Carr’s Billington that we can utilise to help and support our customers to run their businesses better. We are really focused on our customers to make sure we have the right products when they need them, at the right price and of the right quality. 

I have a hands-on managerial style with a clear ethos of how a business should function. My philosophy in life is that you create your own opportunities. It’s about being adaptable and willing to learn. I’m always learning and I usually have a book or three by the bed. 

I spend a lot of time out on the road. We have a big geography and I’m a believer in visiting teams on the front line. If you stay in the office too long, you can lose touch with what’s going on across the business. 

One thing that is really important to us is that our teams are clear about their responsibilities and what they are accountable for. 

Having clear, strong values that we actively live and breathe, is fundamental. It’s about putting people first, making sure people are accountable, open and honest and making sure we foster that right across the business. That starts with me and my team. 

The farming sector faces lots of challenges. It has come out of Covid facing high commodity prices and inflation – not just raw materials but input costs, fertiliser is more expensive. There has been some upside in processor prices, but this has significantly reduced in recent months. 

Carr’s Billington will have a pivotal role in helping farmers adapt to new subsidy arrangements post-Brexit, with the government phasing in the Environmental Land Management regime to replace the subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy. 

Subsidy change is having a significant impact. British farming has been subsidised for a long time but the behaviours that farmers need to demonstrate to access subsidies are changing. 

Clearly there is a focus on the environment and environmental stewardship, that’s the direction from government. We can help them by, for example, having environmentally-sustainable feed produced from sustainable sources. 

The net zero agenda has changed the way we think about animal diets and it has posed the question, ‘What do we need to do differently?’ in terms of products and advice to help our customers to run their businesses better.  

Farmers will adapt though, they always have done, and that’s why I’m optimistic about the future.