ActionCOACH Cheltenham and Happerley Join Forces to Support UK Farmers and Growers
We are delighted to be working with Happerley, the member-based organisation who are pioneering the movement for change in the food and drink industry, to provide vital business support to UK farmers, growers and the wider agricultural community.
The agricultural industry is facing unprecedented changes to their usual markets, food security, staff management, cashflow and transport challenges.
We have partnered with Gloucestershire-based Happerley to provide its members with strategic business support and advice.
“It is more important than ever to support these businesses to pivot and realign” says our Senior Coach Billy Smith. “Our food and drink providers are the unsung heroes, those at the first rung of the supply chain, ensuring we have food on our tables. It is time to ask how they have been affected. What are their coping strategies? What business support do they need to thrive, to change their business model or to grow, while improving their livelihoods and market share.”
Founder of Happerley, Matthew Rymer adds: “I am delighted to be gifting these coaching sessions to our members. Our stellar ‘business as usual’ model reveals its risks and weaknesses in this current landscape. It is now clearer than ever before that the way we produce, trade, organise our supply chains, work, travel, consume and generally operate must change if we want to minimise the short-term impact and prepare a better future.”
The coaching sessions gifted to all Happerley food and drink producers will include growth strategy and management, margin improvement, grant and funding line opportunities, staffing and time management, exit and succession strategies.
Happerley are working with ActionCOACH Cheltenham to provide the urgent strategic business support and advice the agricultural industry needs.
Happerley is the organisation driving transparency and honesty through agricultural supply chains and has over 500 members in the UK.
The pandemic has increased the cost of doing business, but while farmers and growers are taking emergency measures for resilience, at the same time they are preparing long-term strategies to regain competitiveness. Matthew commented: “Coaching is key to helping smaller farmers go beyond surviving this crisis to thrive in the long term and create sustainable businesses. This is exactly what Happerley campaigns for – a relationship of trust and transparency between buyers, producers and value chain operators to reduce the irregularities in the distribution of profit for farmers. I am confident that these coaching sessions with ActionCOACH Cotswolds will have a huge impact to the farmers and growers today and in the future”.
Billy Smith adds “Coaching is not about telling businesses what they are doing wrong but about identifying areas in which they need support all of which can help them to become more efficient, scale up productivity and increase their incomes. Employment is also a big part of the conversation. We are able to support businesses enabling them to employ locally thus creating new jobs and strengthening the economy.”
ActionCOACH Cheltenham alongside Happerley are fully committed to supporting smallholder farmers and small enterprises to ensure resilience and growth through adversity. “We want all farmers, growers, and the wider agricultural sector to be successful and resilient but more importantly sustainable,” says Billy.
