Cumbria Farmer Awards – a great night to showcase farming businesses
Davidson & Robertson was delighted to sponsor the Cumbria Farmer Awards again this year at Greenhill Hotel, Wigton. The event was a great showcase of Cumbria Farming and was an excellent evening. Members from the D&R Cumbria office (Chris Edmunds, Paul Robinson and Abigail Wass), along with our Chairman Robert Shearlaw, thoroughly enjoyed the evening catching up with old and new contacts.
Huge congratulations to all those shortlisted and in particular to The Lakes Free Range who won the award we were sponsoring – Supplier of The Year.
David and Helen Brass started The Lakes Free Range Egg Company 25 years ago, with just 200 hens. Today the company supplies eggs to customers like Sainsbury’s, McDonalds, Tesco, and Booths as well as local independents like Cranston’s. They have achieved this by working closely with a network of local farmers and suppliers and now pack over 1.5million eggs on a daily basis.
Chris Edmunds, Director based at the Cockermouth office said “All 3 finalists in this year’s Award demonstrate the strength and depth we have within Cumbrian businesses; it was really interesting learning more on the evening. What really impressed us with The Lakes Free Range Egg Company is their commitment and the attention to detail that runs right through the whole business – in particular being able to monitor on a daily basis, the welfare and performance of the hens and developing systems that make it easier for producers to do the same.
“Chatting to David & Helen Brass, we came away understanding just how embedded they are with their supply chain – right through the line, from rearing top quality chicks for their farms and their producers, to collecting, packing, and processing eggs for retailers and restaurants and supporting them with sustainability, environmental provenance, and agricultural knowledge.
“Attending events like this also gives us all chance to learn and take something back to our own businesses. We chatted to Helen Brass about how they are developing their apprenticeships – their Supply Chain Manager Ben Thompson-Bloxham followed this route and was a finalist in the apprentice/rural skills category. The depth of learning and experience he has gained has obviously been successful for Ben and for The Lakes’.
“Both at D&R and within the wider Surveying profession via the Central Association of Agricultural Values we are embracing Apprenticeships which give opportunities to those who may not want the full University experience and want to earn whilst progressing towards a professional qualification.”
Commenting on the win David and Helen said, “The award is especially important at this time, not only because we are celebrating our 25th anniversary, but more importantly, it is recognition at a time when our industry is under such huge pressure. With that in mind, we are delighted to have received the award on behalf of everyone who supports us in the business, it is very much a team effort and could not be done without the support we get from our rearing team, our farmer producers, our farm staff, lorry drivers, packing team, the operations, and agricultural teams and those working to support our customers.”
