Globalfarmers calls in receivers

5 July 2001



Globalfarmers calls in receivers

By James Garner

GLOBALFARMERS, the online agricultural trading platform, has gone into voluntary receivership with an unspecified amount of debt.

The Edinburgh-based company has suspended trading on its website just
18 months after pledging to revolutionise the market for farm supplies.

Managing director Jonathan Land said: Its disappointing, but I am positive about the companys future prospects.

However, he admitted: Like many internet start-ups the debt levels run up to begin with had become unwieldy.

As a company, Mr Land said Globalfarmers needed to clear its debts and then come up with a format that would take the company forward.

He claimed there were plenty of interested buyers and said that he expected the company to be snapped up by the end of next week.

A spokesman for receivers Ernst & Young said Globalfarmers was still a good business proposition and expressions of interest had been received.

Speculation about the companys future had mounted since it laid-off half its workforce 40 staff in an attempt to stem cash burn six weeks ago.

Even so, debts continued to grow with estimates putting borrowings at nearly 6m. The foot-and-mouth crisis hit revenues further.

Although Mr Land believes the future for farm trading will be internet-based, farmers have been slow to purchase supplies using websites.

A recent survey of FWi users found that two-thirds use the internet every day but were reluctant to trade with each other online.

United Business Media announced earlier this month that it was closing the e-commerce section of its Farmgate website.

And last April, the French online retailer Agrifirst.com abandoned plans to open an online one-stop-shop for agricultural inputs in the UK.

• Farmgate pulls plug on e-commerce, FWi, 26 June, 2001
• Internet popular but not for trading, FWi, 19 June 2001
• Globalfarmers slashes workforce, FWi, 27 April 2001
• Foot-and-mouth hits farming dot.com, FWi, 23 April 2001
• Dot.com targets farmers, FWi, 19 January, 2001