THOUGHT

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
New grants up to
£200,000 on offer
from growth hub
FARMING
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The Marches Growth Hub
is your single point of
access to information
on the vast range of support
available to businesses in
the region.
Whether you’re interested in grant
funding of up to £200,000, want to know
what business networks are in your area or
need help to start exporting, the businessfriendly
site, www.marchesgrowthhub.co.uk
or helpline on 0345 6000 727 should be
your first port of call.
Thousands of businesses have already
taken advantage of the help on offer via
the virtual hub, which offers up to date
information on a range of issues from high
Starting a business?
Looking for funding & support?
Searching for skills or training?
We can help.
Call us or go online and search more than 100 relevant
products and services available to support your business.
speed broadband and accessing finance to
launching international trade programmes
or finding commercial premises.
There’s also information on the region’s
business networks, case studies from
Marches’ businesses which have taken
advantage of some of the schemes and
products on offer and a packed calendar
of events aimed at supporting business
growth.
The virtual hub’s Support Finder tool
is a great way to find specific business
support products and services which apply
to your business – wherever in the Marches
you’re based, and whatever sector you
operate in. It’s all about finding the relevant
support for YOUR business.
As well as the virtual hub, hub sites
operate in Shrewsbury and Telford, offering
To learn more visit
www.marchesgrowthhub.co.uk or call
0345 6000 727
a range of services, from face-to-face
meetings with business advisors, hot
desking facilities and meeting rooms for
hire.
Marches Growth Hub Shropshire is
co-located with Shropshire Chamber of
Commerce at the Food Enterprise Centre at
Battlefield Enterprise Park.
And Marches Growth Hub Telford
& Wrekin is based at the University of
Wolverhampton’s Innovation Campus in
Priorslee.
So whether yo u’re thinking about
starting-up, or if you’re already running a
business, no matter how small or large, or
whatever size or sector you operate in, the
Marches Growth Hub, developed by The
Marches Local Enterprise Partnership, is
Your Gateway to Business Support.
Grants
of up to
£200,000
now available
Overseeing Wynnstay operations – chief executive Ken Greetham, whose leadership has coincided with sustained growth and stability
A century on and
business is growing
It began 100 years ago as
a farmers’ co-operative.
And in 1918, Wynnstay
appointed its first general
manager, the venerable Mr
Joseph Henry Dowle.
A century on, the company has grown
beyond all recognition. With head offices
at Llansantffraid, on the west Shropshire
border, Wynnstay presently employs more
than 1,000 people.
It’s listed on AIM, the London Stock
Exchange’s international market for growing
companies, and its most recent accounts
feature group revenues of £377million with
a pre-tax profit of more than £9 million.
The man who oversees operations is
chief executive Ken Greetham, a softlyspoken
but redoubtably authoritative
agricultural export whose leadership has
coincided with sustained growth and
stability.
Wynnstay has developed during the
past 15 years by making a series of shrewd
acquisitions and expanding throughout most
of the Midlands, all of Wales and into the
North West, Yorkshire and the South West.
Wynnstay’s centenary will be marked
next year, and Mr Greetham is rightly proud
that the company has grown from humble
By Chris Austin
origins to become a considerable force in
the British agricultural sector.
“It is a milestone and we’ll find a way to
celebrate it,” he says.
Yet the company’s core business,
supplying agricultural products and services
in the rural economy, has changed little. It
remains true to its founding fathers and also
embodies some of the ethical principles laid
down a hundred years ago.
It sees itself as part of the rural
economy and invests heavily in developing
strong business relationships with farmers.
Wynnstay supports agriculturalists who
face tough times brought about by global
fluctuations because it knows that they will
ride out the storm.
“The company was originally a farmers’
co-operative and we are proud to have built
the business around the farming community.
Despite the fact that we are a plc and are
on AIM, we have kept our focus on an
agricultural level,” he adds.
Wynnstay is a developed business
with a broad base encompassing arable,
ruminant and retail. Invariably, one of those
sectors will outperform others as markets
shift and there are fluctuations.
“The last couple of years have
been particularly difficult for our farming
customers. But we have a broad base and
we avoid being distracted by short term
changes.
“The retail side has grown but we retain
our agricultural focus. The retail sector, of
course, provides a link back to the farming
base.”
Mr Greetham believes that farmers will
recover from the challenges and setbacks
that have been a part of their daily routine in
recent times.
“We can see that the current issues
in the agricultural climate are temporary.
Recently, we’ve seen a little reprieve and
the weakening of the pound has given a
little lift. The long term macroeconomics are
good for agriculture,” he continues.
“The UK isn’t as self-sufficient as it could
be and strategically, therefore, agriculture is
in a good place.”
Self-sufficiency is an important issue.
While the UK will never return to a high
percentage – the fact that we drink so much
tea and coffee, for instance, precludes
that – there is alarm that we rely on other
nations so much for our food and drink.
“I would say that as far as the
Government is concerned, that is something
that there should be a focus on. If we
happen to have a poor harvest as a net
importer, food inflation can take off very
quickly.
u