Family company puts £500,000 into expanding premises

A FAMILY-run farming and haulage business that has achieved success through diversification has invested £500,000 expanding its premises in Easingwold.

Whitkirk Produce Company, which was established in 1965 by Michael Grant and is today managed by his daughter Jane, employs 60 people at its sites in Easingwold and Garforth, near Leeds.

The firm's expansion plan includes a new 5,000 sq ft office and training facility and a 8,000 sq ft commercial vehicle workshop, equipped to Vehicle Inspectorate standards and designed to maintain its 50-strong fleet of lorries, tankers, plant and machinery.

Originally a supplier of potatoes to local fish and chip shops and shoddy manure to farmers in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, the company diversified into bulk haulage in the 1960s and the handling of agricultural commodities such as sugar beet and animal feeds.

Over the last three years, healthy increases in turnover have been achieved, with an average, growth rate of 25 per cent per annum due to structured diversification of the company's business activities into waste management and veterinary services.

National Farmer's Union president Sir Ben who officially opened the new premises, said farming was under intense pressure and it was essential to be able to compete in a global marketplace, "We have to look at the whole food chain as to how we are efficient and producing to ever-higher standards," he added.

The new offices will house the Whitkirk Waste Management Team, together with Grants Veterinary Services, wholly-owned subsidiary,' of Whitkirk Produce, which is headed by Jane's sister, Elizabeth Grant.