Late dividend payment dismay for Farmers First
© Tim Scrivener Shareholders at one of the UK’s largest farmer-owned co-ops have been hit by delays to dividend payments after an alleged administrative bungle.
Farmers First has a turnover of more than £70m, handles roughly 10% of the UK’s sheepmeat throughput, and has more than 2,700 shareholders.
See also: Latest sheep prices appear in our online Markets section
It only began making annual dividend payments to shareholders in recent times. However, this year’s cheque was made out with an unnoticed error on the bank sort code.
When the cheque was presented, it bounced, leaving shareholder farmers red-faced and out of pocket.
According to Farmers First director David Owen, who runs a sheep farm in mid-Wales, there is no question to answer about the firm’s financial viability.
“We are profitable and in a strong position,” he said.
He added that replacement dividend cheques were being printed this week and would be with shareholders next week.
Part of the problem, he said, was that about 200 of the original cheques had been successfully cashed and the company and its bank had to work out how this had happened, before printing replacements.
“In future, we will be making BACS payments,” he said.
Farmer concerns
The missing cheques are not the only concern among shareholders, however.
Some have questioned why Farmers First, which was originally set up as a sheep exporting business, did not have a presence at the important SIAL food fair in Paris this month.
Mr Owen said it was their intention to be there, but a logistical problem had arisen.
The company has also been dogged by a boardroom struggle, with two executive directors – Cumbrian farmer John Geldard and Mike Gooding, a founder of the Farmers Ferry company – ousted in March this year.
They say they were voted out after they voiced opinions that the company needed new recruits in the boardroom, to rekindle the company’s marketing momentum.
But the call ultimately cost them their own positions and they were shown the door by fellow directors.
Mr Owen said he had “no comment” on these matters.
About Farmers First
Farmers First was set up as Farmers Ferry in 1999 after major shipping lines bowed to pressure from animal rights campaigners and banned live exports from Dover.
The ban deprived UK farmers of an important market and prices slipped. To help stabilise prices, a group of five farmers and marketing experts founded the Farmers Ferry company.
As the name suggests it ran a private vessel which successfully restored the cross-channel link from Dover and re-established the outlet for lambs.
Although the company was later renamed Farmers First, it retained the remit of proactively seeking to stabilise the lamb market on behalf of its farmer-based shareholders.
Over the years, it has been hugely successful in doing so and has expanded into processing facilities with major plants in Warwickshire and Wales, trading under the Farmers Fresh name.