Chairman profile
Farmer, miller, baker ... and new Club chairman
New Club chairman Paul Heygate has interests in the grain chain from field to plate. Charles Abel finds out more
THE Heygate group spans farming, flour and feed milling and baking, with 7500 acres of mainly arable land in England, seven flour mills on three sites, a feed mill and two modern bakeries. It is a family business which has farmed in Northamptonshire since 1562 and moved into serious milling in the 19th century, when Mr Heygate’s grandfather and grandmother took over the family mill at Bugbrooke. “It was a mill on a stream, with records going back to the Domesday Book, which was grinding grain for local farmers.” The site is now the group’s headquarters, straddling the River Nene, pronounced nen here, but neen by the time it gets to Peterborough, notes Mr Heygate. The biggest change came in 1942, when fire destroyed the mill. Its replacement was capable of converting 24 sacks of wheat into 18 sacks of flour (4t of wheat to 3t of flour) every hour, plus bran for a feed mill alongside. In 1944 a further mill was acquired at Tring in Hertfordshire, followed by the Downham Market mill in Norfolk in 1958. Subsequent investments have made Heygates the country’s largest independent country miller. But there’s a lot more to Heygates than milling. Paul, and cousin Bob, are joint chairmen and joint managing directors, of a group with over 900 staff and a turnover exceeding £200 million.
Farming focus The group’s main farming operation is 5,500 acres of mostly owned, fully irrigated breckland around Swaffham and Beachamwell in Norfolk. Cropping includes 1400 acres of salad, ware, crisping and chipping potatoes, plus wheat and barley, mostly for seed, rye for malting or baking and sugar beet, as well as letting land for carrot, parsnip and onion production, all of which will be visited during the Club’s summer tour to nearby Sandringham in May. A further 1000 acres around Harrold in Bedfordshire and 1000 acres around Northampton produce milling wheat, oilseed rape and beans. Mr Heygate, whose father was a Club committee member, joined the Farmers Club nearly 50 years ago. He helped establish the Under 30s group and as Club Treasurer assissted in transforming the Club’s accounting systems and to better align cashflow to support the on-going £100,000 to £150,000 a year refurbishment programme. This has helped boost occupancy levels significantly. Married to Sally, and with two grandchildren through daughter Sarah, Mr Heygate guards family life closely. He is a governor of Moulton College, was a governor of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, a former President of the National Association of British and Irish Millers and serves on the court of the Worshipful Company of Bakers. He has a keen interest in shooting and is clearly very happy to see Sarah getting involved in the family business with her cousins.
Innovation But while Heygates preserves the family business virtues of quality, loyalty and good staff relations, it is also a very modern, entrepreneurial company. Aside from investing millions in state-of-the-art
04 • The Farmers Club New Year Journal 2012