23rd October 2006 - Chief Executive honoured with prestigious industry award

ANM Group Ltd chief executive Brian Pack has been presented with one of the agricultural industry’s most prestigious awards.

During the October meeting of the Farmers’ Club committee Mr Pack was named as this year’s recipient of the Farmers’ Club Cup, awarded annually to the person or organisation that has made the greatest contribution to establishing a better understanding of contemporary agricultural practices or policies by the British public.

The presentation was made by Farmers’ Club chairman Eric Wilson during a lunch for 120 guests at the House of Lords on Tuesday (October 17th).

Commenting on the award, Farmers’ Club chief executive Grieve Carson said: “This award was made in recognition of Brian’s outstanding contribution to British agriculture over very many years.

“Earlier this year the Club had visited the ANM Group at Thainstone and everyone had been hugely impressed with the dynamic and energetic lead Brian gives to the Group.”

Mr Pack was delighted at the surprise presentation of the Cup and said: “It was a most unexpected honour that I am delighted to receive, not only on a personal level but more that it recognises the Group as a major player in promoting all that is good and important for the agricultural industry.”

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18th October 2006 - Increase in traffic to new website

Scotland’s largest farmer-owned co-operative has experienced an increase of more than 20% in traffic to its recently revamped website.

Originally launched in 2000, the ANM Group Ltd’s www.goanm.co.uk has just been extensively developed and upgraded, underlining the company’s commitment to technology and ecommerce.


And during the first weekend of the website going live, a total of 2,279 unique visitors were received between Friday, October 13th and Monday, October 16th – up 21.6% on the previous weekend.

“Our website is a key marketing tool and it is important that, as well as offering the most up-to-date information on all areas of our business, it also uses as many technological advances and web standards as possible to ensure that it is accessible to everyone,” explained ANM Group Ltd chief executive Brian Pack.

“Online technology, used alongside traditional methods, plays an important role in what we do and a great example of that was at the beginning of this year when we pioneered Single Farm Payment entitlement auctions using our eBid @ live auction remote bidding system in parallel with people being able to bid in person at the auction.”

He added: “We hope that, by ensuring the website is always kept fresh, vibrant and up to date, www.goanm.co.uk will continue to appeal to new and returning visitors alike.”

Demonstrations of the new website will be taking place at Thainstone Centre’s Rural eAccess Centre this Friday (October 20th) between 11am and 1pm.

Members of staff will be on hand to talk visitors through the changes, answer questions and provide the opportunity for hands-on trials.

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11th October 2006 - Decisions to be made about the way ahead for farming

Decisions need to be made by all involved in beef production and farming about the way ahead, according to ANM Group Ltd chief executive Brian Pack.

Speaking at the SAC’s Beef Production on the Family Farm event at Rorandle, Monymusk recently, Mr Pack said it was time for those in the industry to re-look at the financial relationships that have been accepted within a business.

He said “These are based on production subsidies and with their removal one has to reconsider what is right for the particular business and particularly the resources available to that business.

“For me it is a very exciting time in agriculture as businesses identify their path to economic efficiency. Economic efficiency is often wrongly taken to be maximum profit whereas many more aspects must be considered, such as satisfaction and what the desired outcomes of the resource owner is. In some cases it might be maximum profit, but I would say that is rare in agriculture.

“At Rorandle we have an excellent example of where satisfaction figures highly. You see at a glance that keeping good cows, breeding excellent calves and generally improving the on-farm environment has high priority leading to a high sense of family achievement and satisfaction for a job well done – all of which must be factored in to the measure of economic efficiency of a business.

Mr Pack also said that he had few concerns about the future of beef production on the family farm but went on: “I do have major concerns about beef production where the majority or all of the labour is employed due to a shortage of people willing to do the hours and their expectation of income and lifestyle. But again where the stockman derives immense satisfaction from his job, one can see future stability.”

He also highlighted the importance of considering Single Farm Payment in assessing a business, saying: “There has been much argument about how to consider the Single Farm Payment in assessing a farm business and there is no doubt that if the element of Single Farm Payment resulting from the production of beef in the past is separated from the enterprise, it will not be financially viable but it is essential to take a longer term view.

“I believe that in the not too distant future the concept of sustainable food supply will emerge, resulting in some re-coupling of subsidies to production across Europe and I can imagine that here in Scotland we will find a way through modulation to encourage the keeping of suckler cows. Beef production is a vital part of the rural economy and an important contributor to Scotland's gross domestic product.”

Turning to cattle prices, Mr Pack said that summer 2006 has brought about the start of more realistic cattle prices which reached their highest since March 1996. “While these prices are very necessary and likely to rise in the future as the shortage of beef right across Europe comes home to roost, the increase in retail prices has been particularly slow providing real pain for the processing sector.

“The fact that our beef production is now on an equal footing with the rest of Europe in that we can export both beef and live stock means that we should see an equalisation of price across Europe which, in general, can only be good news for the UK and Scottish producers. Whilst one would prefer to see processing taking place in Scotland, if it is necessary that live exports result in a faster price adjustment, then so be it. For ourselves we have worked hard to achieve live export of cast cows to the Republic of Ireland where their quoted price is way above ours.”

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