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A student from the Royal Agricultural College who devised a Rural Business Case Study has won a prestigious annual award for her efforts. Ellena Pitts was awarded gold at the 2011 Farmers Club Pinnacle Awards for Excellence in Business Management for the farming sector. Robert Baker, also from the Royal Agricultural College, was presented with the silver accreditation.

Ellena impressed the judging panel with the clarity of her detailed report and the excellent presentation performance of her Rural Business Case. Both Ellena and Robert will receive a cash reward, with Ellena also being presented with the Nickerson Memorial Cup.

Dr James Jones from the Royal Agricultural College is thrilled to have two of his students recognised for their work and strongly supports platforms like the Farmers’ Club Pinnacle Awards.

Dr Jones said: "The awards provide tremendous motivation for all students on our courses to compete for this prestigious accolade and the experience of the judging day, interviews and presentations are a great learning experience for students to get involved in."

This year the guest of honour was Mark Price, CEO of Waitrose, who also presented the awards and congratulated the students on their efforts to help improve the skills and innovation needed in the food supply chain.

Mark said: "There is nothing more important on the political agenda than food and food security. The challenge for our next generation of graduates is to provide solutions to make sure the food supply chain can continue and improve in the future."

The Awards are sponsored by The Farmers’ Club, ADAS and the Cave Foundation, all working to encourage business excellence in rural industries.

Tony Turner, Senior Business Consultant at ADAS and a member of the judging panel said: "The judges were all very impressed with the quality of entries, but in particular with Ellena’s report writing and content. Her performance in interview demonstrated a complete command of her subject and business proposal.

"The standard of entries was very high this year and it was pleasing to see a slightly higher number of farming focused entries. Echoing the remarks of Mark Price we look forward to seeing farming focused business cases with the same level of innovation found in those addressing diversification projects."

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