Deans expands its feed sales

Egg packer Deans is set to expand its feed operation by seeking new customers in the east and west of England.

The company currently has five feed mills stretching from Fife in Scotland all the way down to Clearwell on the Gloucester/Monmouthshire border. Other sites include Bilsthorpe in Nottinghamshire, Seamer in North Yorkshire and Finmere in Buckinghamshire.

Although the milling side of Deans’ business was originally built up on the back of feeding in-house production—four of the mills being inherited with the takeover of Daylay—outside sales of feed now represent the majority of the mills’ combined annual output of 560,000 tonnes.

Helping Deans to head west will be feed specialist David Stephens, currently with Crediton Milling Company, but set to join Deans in March.

"We are delighted to have secured his services," said Deans’ operations director Andrew Jorêt. "David is well known and respected throughout the westcountry and his technical knowledge will help us to provide customers with excellent back-up."


The company is now looking for someone to fill a similar role in East Anglia.

Commenting on the logistics of hauling feed into Devon and Cornwall, Mr Jorêt accepted that distance was a consideration but said it could be done.

"Obviously we will have to judge each farm on its own merits," he told the Ranger. "But we have for some time now been delivering feed from our Finmere mill to producers in Somerset whose birds are on the Columbus diet, so we are used to travelling." Responding to the suggestion that producers supplying Deans with eggs may be losing some much-valued independence by buying feed from their packer, Mr Jorêt insisted this would not be the case.

"We have always offered producers a choice of contracts. The ’scheme’ contract does include buying pullets and feed from Deans in return for a guaranteed minimum price. But with the ’independent’ contract, which is based on a variable egg price, producers are free to purchase inputs from wherever they choose, provided they meet the Lion code and any individual retailer requirement.

"We have no intention of changing this policy and we already have many independent producers who buy both feed and pullets from us."