The short answer is yes, but this answer has to be tempered. We could have purchased a far smaller farm and sold our products in the market, but when we built it we had a particular marketing objective: Make hay from the impact of Brexit.
We purchased the land for about ₤ 6,500 per acre, the land we just purchased was slightly less than ₤ 8,000 per acre, but is in much better condition. Our land required a lot of remedial work (e.g. fencing, shrubbery removal replanting etc) and none of the original farm structures were useable or safe. The land alone was several million pounds, so the answer is yes, we were rich when we started.
Modern farming, especially if you intend on selling your product (as opposed to substance farming) requires a great deal of money because there are many regulations as to food production.
We did very well in the financial sector, the gravy train was very welcoming. In addition, early on I purchased a stake in our firm, not overly large when it was purchased in the late 1990s but still a not insignificant amount, that was an inheritance from my mother's side of the family.
Needless to say, I had my doubts, 1997 was a difficult year for the firm because of its exposure profile, and client base (which is when I invested), and the corrections of 2001 and 2008 were also blips on the radar. I have not had sleepless nights, but I can assure you that my interests and those of the firm were perfectly aligned.
I had an easy life, it would be a lie to say otherwise, we had four healthy children, now adults, and after nearly 30 years of marriage, we are still happy to see each other in the morning. For most of my life in London, only five people depended on me. As my wife mentioned this morning, now it's more like 500, if we take into consideration all our employees and their families. That changes you.
Do I see myself as a modern-day Robin Hood, not at all, because let's be honest, my target market for my goods is high-end restaurants and hotels and rich London-based people who can afford to buy our relatively expensive farm products? Our butter is twice the price of what you would pay at Sainsbury butter. Our goat cheese is very expensive (yet we run out all the time). We are farmer capitalists, and yes we were rich before we started.
Note: People are amazing. I don't know why I am surprised by the comments. I already wrote that we have a payroll of more than three million pounds per annum, forget the taxes we pay, the cost of diesel, the cost of improving the land, the biodigesters, and the high tunnels all that come at a large capital expenditure. Some of it was borrowed, but most of it was our own capital. In addition, we had no revenues in the first year of operation (nearly nothing) we signed contracts with wholesalers and did all the legal footwork, we bought a lot of equipment. We planned this, we budgeted this, and we saw this as an interesting and profitable business. Our revenues are substantial, especially because of the massive screw-up by the Johnson Government, during the pandemic we were incredibly lucky to have built a web-based farm store and the wholesalers were more than happy to fill the delivery gap, since all restaurants and hotels were closed.
Seriously, we employ the equivalent of 72 full time employees, by the end of 2024 we will employ the equivalent of 120 full time employees! This is a business, not a toy!
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