Levy board move ‘will save £4m a year’

Almost £4 million a year will be saved after the Agricultural and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) relocates to Stoneleigh.

The savings are the result of a new integrated levy board structure created from five individual sector levy boards.

AHDB is due to complete its relocation this autumn when its operations are brought together at the National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire.

Chairman John Bridge said: “The AHDB board strongly believes that any changes in organisation design and structure must deliver better value for levy payers.”

Structures put in place for the new organisation to work effectively had been refined to benefit all levy-paying sectors, said Dr Bridge.

“We are now a single organisation and from April 1 will operate as such.”

A single executive management team overseen by the AHDB chief executive would be responsible for the delivery of work streams across all six sectors.

But sector specific activity would still be delivered under the established sector brands of BPEX, DairyCo, EBLEX, the HGCA, Potato Council and Horticultural Development Company.

“All staff work for AHDB with some in specific sector teams and others servicing more than one sector from shared services,” said Dr Bridge.
 
“We are welding a single team ethos with sector focus and this will become a lot easier once we are all co-located at Stoneleigh Park this summer.”