FRAM FARMERS 60TH ANNIVERSARY
FRAM’S FOUNDING BOARD MEMBERS In our 60th Anniversary year, we took a trip down memory lane, and caught up with the founding members of the Fram Farmers board that are still with us today. Here, they share their fond memories of their time on the board and its lasting legacy. MIKE LLOYDS Whist studying at Writtle College, Mike saw an advert for a purchasing administrator at Fram Farmers on the jobs board. After interviewing with Peter Lusted and his wife Kathleen, he started in July 1963 as Peter’s assistant. “Peter was a chartered secretary, so numbers were his thing, and I brought the agricultural knowledge and experience. The rest, as they say, is history. I worked with Peter in his garage at Kettleburgh, in the days before the office opened on market hill in Framlingham,” explains Mike. “It was still double-entry book-keeping at
DAVID BLACK David was also a founding board member, joining the board alongside many local familiar faces in the industry. Feeding 80,000 – 90,000 pigs per year at the time, David’s business was also one of the larger members of Fram Farmers, buying feedstuffs, fertilisers and sprays. “Early on, we did more with Fram Farmers than anyone else, and being part of a cooperative had, and still provides, the opportunity for farmers to be more competitive.” “The structure of the board worked well,
JOHN KERR John was an early board member, joining shortly after its formation in the 1960s, and remaining on the board until the mid-seventies. Taking on a tenancy of his farm in Blaxhall in 1963, John grew a variety of crops and managed dairy cows and turkeys on the family holdings in Letheringham and Easton. “I remember getting a call from Steven Horvat asking me to join the board. It was an honour to be in the company of so many well-regarded and senior local 14
the time, no computers and no calculators. We did the invoicing and ledgers, and Kathleen typed the minutes, newsletters etc. Peter was an absolute stickler; everything had to be spot on. We spent hours in the evenings doing the work, until the books balanced.” Mike has fond memories of other board members, notably Steven Horvat. “Steven was a remarkable character. He was on 6 or 7 different boards in the area at the same time, but when he was there in that board room, he was there for Fram Farmers. He never ever put his own interests first, it was all for the benefit of the cooperative. He would come into the office and stir things up to make sure
with one overall chairman and then chairmen of different groups, such as purchasing, grain marketing etc. I attended buying group meetings, and general board meetings as one-time chairman of the buying group, and reported back to the board. “There were always so many ideas floating about, but we had to make sure these ideas were right for the business. Adding more services to the business didn’t always provide value to members, as there were overhead costs to consider. The cash and carry service, for example, closed in 1992, which was a strategic
farmers. I was one of the youngest on the board at the time and they had so much knowledge that I was keen to learn from,” explains John. “It was at a significant stage of my own career at the time, and I hope I contributed a younger man’s views to discussions and earned my place. The board was led by a dynamic chairman, Steven Horvat, an outstanding character, in both his personality and drive. He was the kind of man who, in a meeting, would always ask the questions that no one else had the guts to ask.” “I will always admire the frugality of how
things were happening; he wanted solutions, not problems.” “We were always looking for what the members wanted and we had a strong working relationship with many of the merchants. Some merchants undermined us, going direct to farmers, which was when we figured out a subscription structure, trying to work out a system that was equitable for members of all sizes. “At the time, we had to make ends meet and cash flow was a huge focus of our work. In 1963/64, we got up to about 300 members, we hit turnover of £1m with overheads of about 0.92%, which we will probably never see again. It was a good time.”
move,” adds David. “With the refurbishment of the offices on new road in the nineties, it was ‘all hands on deck’. Fram Farmers really had a family feel to it, and I’m sure that remains the case today.” David’s nephew James is managing director of the farming business at Bacton, David Black & Son, which is still a member of Fram Farmers today, buying fertilisers, grain, agrochemicals, electricity and fuel through the cooperative.
the cooperative was run in the early days to get it off the ground. Initially the board would gather in the meeting room at the Crown and Anchor pub in Framlingham – that was our board room for a while.” John’s son Bruce now runs the family business, William Kerr Farms, while son Alastair also farms nearby, and runs a successful wedding venue, Easton Grange. Daughter Fiona runs Easton Farm Park, a day visitor attraction. All farm businesses continue to make use of their Fram Farmers membership, sourcing electricity, farm inputs and building materials through the cooperative. FARMERSFIRST I S S U E 57 - AU TU M N 2 0 2 0
