Cornwall Farmers unveils strengthened new board

October 2011

Cornwall Farmers (CF) has unveiled its new eight-strong board having announced earlier this year that it was recruiting new directors to drive the business forward.

The £70 million co-operative, which has been supplying the agricultural community for the last 90 years and is owned by its 4,200 members, voted at its annual general meeting in March to diversify its board structure following a review.

The new board formally took up duties on September 30 under new chairman Dr Geoffrey Vernon. Geoffrey has been a board director of CF since 2007 and succeeds Peter Thomas who has stepped down after three years in the role.

The new board members were appointed following an external assessment process and were judged against stringent qualifying criteria.

Geoffrey said: “These new appointments strengthen the breadth and depth of experience, skills and commercial acumen available to Cornwall Farmers. They reinforce our fierce commitment to remain independent as we focus on driving the business forward.

“The quality of candidates was so impressive that we have decided to appoint four new member directors rather than the two originally planned. I’m confident that their decades of business experience will bring increased drive and focus to the co-operative and I am delighted to welcome such an outstanding team.”

He recorded his thanks to the outgoing board members for their support and said former vice-chairman Adrian Shute would remain on the board until next year’s annual general meeting to help effect a smooth transition.

Cornwall Farmers’ new board includes two executive directors, four member directors and one professional independent director. The executive director posts are held by chief executive Simon Birch and director of finance Andrew Knott.

The four new member directors are Jeremy Oatey, Ian Tremain, Rex Ward and Charles Williams, and the professional independent director is Jules Hydelman. Profiles of each board member follow below:

Dr Geoffrey Vernon – Chairman
Geoffrey farms 155 acres on Dartmoor with his wife Julie. They have a herd of pedigree Red Ruby's and a mixed flock of commercial and Greyface Dartmoor ewes. Geoffrey is a pharmacist and a member of the Veterinary Pharmacy Group of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He has extensive business experience and is Chairman and Non Executive Director of a number of public and private companies in the UK and abroad. Geoffrey has been a board member of Cornwall Farmers since 2007 was appointed Chairman of the Audit Committee in 2009. He has played a key role over the last 12 months in helping to refocus the business.

Simon Birch – Chief Executive Officer
Simon has 25 years of experience in industry, his previous role being that of Director of Finance, IT and Strategy for a European Division of Imerys Minerals, where his role was split between Brussels, Paris and the UK. Simon is a graduate Engineer and Chartered Accountant, who qualified with Coopers and Lybrand in 1988. Simon's career has encompassed both financial management and management consultancy positions. His other roles include financial management positions at Carnon Holdings (Tin Mining) and South West Water locally, before becoming a Principal Consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in their London office.

Andrew Knott – Director of Finance, Company Secretary
Andrew joined Cornwall Farmers as Finance Director in June 2010. He qualified as an Accountant in industry having held a number of senior financial reporting positions in different business sectors including defence, pharmaceuticals and construction. For the last 12 years he has operated as a Finance Director in a number of companies in the South West. He has also retained an active interest in the tax profession as a Chartered Tax Practitioner.

Jeremy Oatey – CF Member Director
Jeremy is managing director of Agricola Growers Ltd and managing partner of Hay Farm Produce, both based at Antony near Torpoint. Jeremy started Agricola Growers in 2004, a farming company managing 500 acres of tenanted land and 2,100 acres of contract farmed land.
Hay Farm Produce supplies vegetables to major bakeries in the South West.
Jeremy is a graduate of Seale Hayne Agricultural College and for eight years was farm manager at Angloflora Farms Ltd near Truro. He has been a director of Kernow Grain Ltd since 2002 and chairman for the last five years.

Ian Tremain – CF Member Director
A Cornishman born and bred, Ian grew up on the family dairy farm near Lanreath in South East Cornwall and was part of the first ever intake of students at Duchy College. Ian has been involved in the feeds business for most of his professional career, starting with WJ Oldacre and Mole Valley Farmers before setting up his own successful feed commodity business in Bridgwater, Tremains Ltd, and selling it to BOCM Pauls eight years later. More recently Ian completed a 12-month appointment as rural business champion for the BBC Village SOS programme. Ian was recently appointed a non-executive director of Wessex Grain Ltd and sits on the UK board of the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust.

Rex Ward – CF Member Director
Rex is a dairy farmer from North Cornwall and for more than 10 years has played a prominent role promoting the dairy industry. He was a founder member, farmer director and vice chairman of the Milk Link co-operative before stepping down last year, having helped grow Milk Link into the UK’s largest producer of cheese with an annual turnover of £586 million and an export market spanning 20 countries. Last year Rex became a main board director of trade association Dairy UK, and is chairman of the Dairy UK Farmers Forum. This is responsible for representing the views of farmers in Dairy UK. Rex was previously on the board of Cornwall Farmers from 1994 to 2002.

Charles Williams – CF Member Director
Charles’ family has owned the Caerhays Estate near St Austell for more than 150 years. In the last two decades it has been transformed into a diversified business with more than 100 employees. It includes Caerhays Castle and Gardens, mail order plant business Burncoose Nurseries and Caerhays Home Farm with 250 cattle, 600 breeding ewes and a variety of arable crops. Charles is chairman of the South West Investment Group with a loan portfolio of £15 million, a past board member of Cornwall Enterprise and previously worked for Lazard & Co investment bank. He is also on the board of his wife’s family business, Hook Norton Brewery.

Jules Hydelman – Professional Independent Director
Jules has led both start up and established businesses to success and profitability in a variety of roles including chairman, chief executive and non-executive director. Based in North Devon he assists his wife to farm a 250 acre organic beef and sheep enterprise.  His current roles include non-executive director of Jacobson Group, a major footwear supplier with annual sales of £45 million and Managing Director of Christys Hats, the famous headwear brand founded in 1773.
Jules was also non-executive chairman and a stakeholder of Innocent Drinks from inception in 1998 until 2008, helping to grow the business into the number one smoothie brand in the UK with annual sales of £169 million.

CF employs 270 staff and injects more than £30 million a year into the local economy through wages and what it spends with local suppliers.

CF’s agricultural supplies business, under the CF Agriculture banner, supplies more than £45 million of goods and services every year. And it sells £25 million of goods through its 13 CF Country Stores, which is the biggest network in Cornwall and Devon.