Picture: The Lakes packing station
David Brass entertained delegates at the free range conference with the story of how he went from RAF Harrier pilot to operating the country’s largest free range-only packing station. A health problem forced him out of the cockpit and the end of a boyhood dream in 1988 and, faced with a desk job in the RAF or a return to the family farm in Cumbria, he quickly made for home in the mountains of the Lake District.
Here his wife Helen had already embarked on a free range career and was the proud owner of 200 laying hens. But David’s return to the farm triggered an expansion plan and by 1992 they had 9,000 layers supplying a packer. By 1996 takeovers meant their packer had changed three times and their outlet for eggs was moving further and further away from Cumbria leaving the Brass family feeling vulnerable.
It was the impetus for a very successful move into egg marketing and with the help of 5b grant money—which took 14 months of chasing paper to achieve—a £1 million, stone-clad packing station was built in idyllic surroundings.
“It was a very opportune time to get into free range marketing,” said David, “for there had been a high profile case of fraud surrounding an egg packing operation and the guarantee offered by a free range-only packer appealed to retailers.”
The Lakes Free Range Egg Company quickly picked up a major supermarket customer and over the next few years steady growth saw the packing operation increase to around 2000 cases a week.
“The business had reached a plateau. We had 20 employees and I was working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said David. “We were faced with the choice of continuing like that or installing a management team and expanding the business to cover the cost.”
David and Helen chose the latter option—as parents of two sets of twins it is understandable why a shorter working week was desirable—and a packing station manager, maintenance manager, sales team and field staff went on the payroll. In order to compete with the major packers a state-of-the-art grader was installed—at a cost of £500,000—and with auto crack and blood detection equipment it could satisfy the most stringent requirements of supermarket customers while comfortably handling the 5,000 cases a week the business had grown to.
The Lakes now has five of the top ten supermarkets as customers and 30 contracted producers supply the business with eggs from 300,000 hens.
“We’ve been able to give our customers something special,” said David. “If you want to take the big packers on you need to be cheaper or have an angle. Being cheaper is the road to ruin, for if you’re 2p less this week, somebody else will be next week.
“Our selling point is the dedicated free range operation and our location. If I can’t take a buyer to any one of our supplying farms and sell him eggs after seeing the view of the mountains and lakes from the pophole then I might as well give up.”
But giving up is not David’s style and he told the audience that if the RAF had taught him anything it was to play to win and that there was no prize for second.
“For those of you wanting to market your own eggs, good luck. It’s a challenge with fantastic rewards,” he said. “The daily highs and lows, the buzz, the skills you pick up on a daily basis make you feel alive. Life in the supermarket egg marketing business is never a grind.”
