As a result of Brexit, Covid, and the war in Ukraine, an animal feed trading business is bullish about its prospects for the future.
According to Daniel Chilvers, Managing Director of Thomas Mawer Ltd, the company is motivated by the move to new premises, the buoyant balance sheet, and the responsibility of switching to employee ownership two years ago.
Furthermore, it is inspired by Daniel’s predecessors, who diversified from trading animal byproducts and animal fats from the rendering industry during the 1990s BSE crisis.
He said:
“We have a good foundation from the former owners who built the company over the years but we don’t get carried away when times are good and we don’t get too down when it’s hard.
“For last year we did £100m turnover which was a record, but that’s partly down to the cost of the raw material prices shooting up over the last 18 months. We work on very narrow margins which tend to get smaller as raw material prices rise.
“My shareholders are also my staff so I have a slightly different role to most managing directors, but we have a workforce that’s a cut above because we have people who are interested and have a stake in the company. We have successfully rebuilt our balance sheet since buying the business and there’s nothing stopping us from going out and funding new developments.”
The business employs 19 people across three offices in Essex, Hereford and Hull city centre, where it opened 45 years ago and is still headquartered. Allenby Commercial renovated a third-floor suite by Thomas Mawer Ltd at Chariot House in Carr Lane.
Mostly the feed mills in Yorkshire, who supply the county’s farmers, purchase raw materials and commodities from all over the world and the UK.
Daniel said: “We are relatively big in terms of turnover but tiny in a huge market with some very big players. But we find our niche. We can take things on that others can’t and we are fairly light on our feet. That enables us to get out of things that aren’t making money and move into other activities.
“We don’t own any assets. Lorries, drivers, bagging and storage are all third party. We focus on trading and serving our customers as best we can. We just hope our selling prices are higher than our buying prices!.”
Despite his appointment as Thomas Mawer Ltd’s managing director in 2020, Daniel still spends 80 percent of his time as a trader, which he joined five years ago at Thomas Mawer Ltd. Finding new premises was one of his first big decisions.
He said:
“Our lease was up and instead of simply signing a new one we felt it would be prudent to see what else was available. Charlie Allenby was here when I came for a look and he was very keen and enthusiastic and proud of what they have done with Paragon Arcade next door and that gave us a bit of a lift.
“It was clear they really care about the buildings, they are interested in the tenants and they care about the city and I buy into that. I want my staff to feel that the business is the priority but you also want something wider to ground you in a project that’s meaningful for the city.”
A long list of challenges has been overcome by the business during its transition to employee ownership.
Daniel said: “Brexit was a significant event because we import a lot of our materials from Europe. There are 30 to 40 lorry loads a month of a whole range of raw materials we import.
“It became a higher stress part of the business and we have employed additional staff to deal with the extra admin. The costs ultimately get passed on to consumers but we had to adapt and learn new things and that distracted from the day job it all happened at the same time as Covid with a new way of working.
“A number of staff left the business during Covid and we had to recruit new people who had to learn and get training. It seems a long time ago now but in 2021 there was a chronic shortage of HGV drivers and then to cap it all the war! That sent everything from agricultural products to gas prices shooting through the roof!
“Now the dollar strength is giving us more headaches but there will always be challenges and we just roll up our sleeves. We are in a decent position with good demand and we are always developing new products because the BSE crisis created a culture of looking for the next thing and not waiting for crises to happen. We have to be ahead of the game and it will be exciting to see where we are in three or four years.”
