The Robert Ashton Interview Sponsored by Cultura


Feed industry forward thinkers under the spotlight. Steven Read, ForFarmers N.V.


Executive Committee Member,Farmers N.V. Chief Operating Officer, ForFarmers United Kingdom


Talking with Steven Read, who took over the helm at ForFarmers UK on the first of January this year, I quickly found we had two things in common. Firstly we had both been to Basingstoke as final year students, for milk-round interviews with BOCM and failed to be offered a job. Secondly, despite that early set back, we’ve both gone on to have successful careers. In fact we also both ended up


working for Ipswich companies, Fisons in my case and Pauls Agriculture in Steven’s. You see I was as interested in arable as I was in livestock, whilst Steven had known from an early age that his career would be in livestock nutrition. Steven Read was born and


raised on a small dairy farm. An only child, taking over the farm one day was always an option, but as he explained, he’s too gregarious to spend his working life alone with just his cows for company. As a child he kept his own small flock of sheep and bred and reared poultry. He took a keen interest in their diet, quickly realising that profit is directly related to livestock performance. From school he went


to university to study animal production, physiology and nutrition. He placed his foot on the first rung of the career ladder formulating rations at Pauls Agriculture. This was around the time that milk quotas were introduced to address EU wide oversupply of milk and butter. The media talked of a milk lake and butter mountain. To UK farmers this simply made efficiency


all the more important. Th e 1 9 8 0 s a l s o s aw


rationalisation across the agricultural supply industry as it trimmed its costs, mirroring the farmers’ drive for greater efficiency. In 1992 Unilever sold BOCM to merge with Pauls Agriculture and create BOCM PAULS. Steven now found himself working alongside those who’d been recruited straight from university into BOCM. Steven had by now climbed


a few rungs up the career ladder and had experience both of mill based ration formulation and on farm technical advice. He also for a time was responsible for the company’s trials farm. I asked which side he preferred, advising farmers or working back-office formulating rations. His reply was that farmer contact has always been important, explaining how important it is to match feed to forage and tailor rations to deliver optimum performance. At merger the company had


32 mills around the UK. Within a few years this number had fallen to 12, with total production increasing. Steven had, as one of his roles, the unenviable task of reducing the headcount too. He spoke of the importance of handling redundancies with integrity and respect for those being let go. It was tough to lose colleagues, some of whom he’d worked with for years and had come to know well. In 2012 BOCM PAULS became


part of the Dutch owned ForFarmers group. This international group produces more than nine million


tonnes of feed annually. It has mills in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany as well as now the UK. This quickly led to further investment in UK production, with a new £10m plant having coming on-stream in Exeter in 2017. Inevitably, as Steven’s career


has developed his role has become more strategic. Until 2014 he spent six years as Business Unit Director, responsible for production, transport and sales of BOCM PAULS’ products across southern Britain. He is very much a people person and has become a skilled leader. He’s a believer in selling not telling and values training and equipping his people to do their job well. The company strives to


keep its staff in touch with its agricultural markets. They’ve recently introduced a ‘farming for non-farmers’ training programme. This sees those who’ve never visited a farm meeting farmers and developing that all important grassroots understanding of the industry. Being part of a growing


international group has a habit of presenting new opportunities. In 2014 Steven relocated to the group’s headquarters 60 miles east of Amsterdam. Here he has been responsible for purchasing, formulations, pricing and feed production across the group.


His family home has remained


in the UK, so he has for the past three years, been a regular commuter, flying to and from Amsterdam airport Schiphol. At times, his partner and family spent time in the Netherlands too. When we spoke, Steven was sitting in a hotel room at Stansted, something I suspect he will do less of once settled into his new UK based role. With Brexit high on so many


agendas I was keen to find out how Britain leaving Europe would impact on a European company with such commitment to British agriculture. Of course exchange rates have had an impact on raw material pricing and this has been reflected in the price at the farm gate. But beyond that, Steven was


quietly optimistic. He pointed out that the UK may well find it beneficial to increase domestic milk and meat production, reducing our reliance on imported food. This, together with an ongoing quest to improve efficiency without reducing quality, would benefit both farmers and those who trade with them. Finally, I was keen to learn how


Steven relaxed and so asked the question. His reply took me back to his early life, keeping livestock. Steven owns a horse and says he does his best thinking when in the saddle. I suspect that even here, he rarely cracks a whip!


This column is sponsored by Cultura, suppliers of proven integrated software solutions designed specifically for agri-businesses’


FEED COMPOUNDER JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 PAGE 19


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