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Company History |
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The 1940’s |
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| Formed in 1946 with the purchase of 80 ha at Norfolk House farm by Major John Piccaver. Crops consisted of Potatoes, Sugar Beet, Peas, Wheat, Oats, Barley for Horses and Grass for the beef herd. In the Late 40’s a further 105 ha was rented from a family member nearby at Onslow farm, and a second herd of pedigree Lincoln Reds established at a new site. | ||||||||||||||||
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The 1950’s |
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| The company became J E Piccaver & Co (Gedney Marsh). The late 50’s saw the purchase of Onslow Farm and the cattle sold and replaced by sheep flock. With the cattle gone and the horses fast being replaced by tractors, the Oats and Barley were dropped in favour of more saleable crops. We helped set up Holbeach Marsh Consortium to harvest and market “Vining” peas which replaced Harvest Peas. A new crop, Daffodil Bulbs was introduced in partnership with a neighbouring farmer, as a way of sharing the start up costs. | ||||||||||||||||
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The 1960’s |
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| The early 60’s saw the creation of Lingarden to market our bulbs and other produce. A small acreage of Cabbages were now being grown on the farm and sold by the acre for harvest to local traders. David Piccaver returned home from college in 1964. The late 60’s saw the introduction of Brussels Sprouts marketed through Bedfordshire growers (another co-operative). It also saw a large block of land extending to the sea wall comprising of some 300 ha up for rent. This was an ideal opportunity for the company and took our farmed area to nearly 500 ha. | ||||||||||||||||
The 1970’s |
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| Helped create Lingrain to market cereals on behalf of it’s members, allowing cheaper long term storage and collective selling power. Sheep transferred to sister farm in Stamford on poorer soil, creating a totally crop based farm, with all marketing handled by co-operatives. The late 70’s the area farmed increased to 610 ha through the purchase of a block of adjoining land. The sprout area was at its peak of 80 ha, and daffodil crop had expanded to 30 ha | ||||||||||||||||
The 1980’s |
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| The mid 80’s (with the effects of the recession still hitting the industry) saw us approached to grow Iceberg Lettuce for a local company. With advice on varieties, planting, pest and disease control from ADAS we grew a total of 21 ha over the season. With the company not able to sell all our crop we approached a local processor to try and move the surplus. Our product met their specification and we were away. Having identified a ready market for lettuce of the right quality and maturity grown specifically for that market, rather than out of spec lettuce from pre-packers. Using mainly our own transport gave us a higher service level than using outside haulage. |
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The 1990’s. |
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| By the early 90’s we have established a sound processing business. With 5 major customers the Iceberg lettuce had risen to 46 ha to cope with the demand. We also began supplying Salad onions, quickly rising from 2 ha to over 8 ha. Through purchase of rented land and other acquisitions our farmed area had risen to 640 ha, of which 525 ha was company owned. 1992 saw the Iceberg ha rise to 78, and the introduction of another salad (Calabrese). Took on two Cornish growers to supply late October/early November period. The mid 90’s saw our land base rise to 750 ha, and the installation of a fourth reservoir to hold 5 million gallons – taking our storage capacity to 8.7 million gallons, all mains fed. We were also offered and introduced the Enviroscan system for measuring water usage. Stuart Piccaver joined the company as Operations Manager in 1995. 1997 saw the purchase of a further 80 ha, and the purchase of the last of our rented land taking our base to 830 ha – all now company owned. | ||||||||||||||||
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