“Business as usual” following changing of guard at Eliis Eggs

Published on : 29 Oct 2024

Ellis Eggs changed hands at the end of August...

Gwesyn Davies isn’t a man to do things by halves, as The Ranger found out when they went to meet the man who’s just taken over from Jason and Wendy Ellis as the owner of the eponymous Aberdare-based egg packer, Ellis Eggs.

Six years ago, in the wake of family bereavement, Gwesyn was looking for employment to support the homestead of traditional Welsh farming in Builth Wells. He’d completed his BSc in Agriculture at Harper Adams, incorporating a placement year in industry with 2 Sisters Food Group. “It was the only placement that gave me the chance to get home to the sheep and cattle,” jokes Gwesyn. But ewes and calves offered insufficient opportunity and, whilst poultry was considered, the prospect of gaining planning permission for a free-range unit at home was unrealistic. Gwesyn joined the Lloyds Animal Feeds team. As is now clear, he picked up a few things along the way.

Gwesyn thrived as a pullet and feed sales rep for mid and west Wales, with close to a million layers under his wing. “I enjoyed the selling,” he says, “but I loved the feeling of helping farms improve and working closely with the families.”
The chance to put those words into action came in 2021. When a producer decided to exit the egg market, Gwesyn saw his opportunity to step in. With help from HSBC, and against the perceived wisdom of the time, he bought the 32,000-bird free-range farm in Newtown.

“Sue Jones at HSBC has been fantastic throughout, an incredible support,” says Gwesyn. “Sue has helped so many farms around here, and she’s introduced me to the right people in the bank when the plans to grow have developed. Without her guidance and experience, along with the support of the key people around me, this new venture wouldn’t have been possible.”

Through his time at Lloyds, Gwesyn has witnessed at close hand the highs and lows of egg production, together with the successes and failures that follow. Good and bad, he’s seen it all, lending crucial lessons to apply to his now burgeoning estate.

New owner Gwesyn Davies (right) with head of operations, Nick Jenkins

Since the first foray in Newtown, Gwesyn has added either ownership or tenancy of free range and barn farms in mid-Wales and the Herefordshire border totalling 200,000 layers. Extending his reach into egg packing was a logical next step.

With several of the farmers on his patch supplying Ellis Eggs, Gwesyn and Jason had already developed a good understanding of one another, and the deal that followed came easily to the pair. “I think we reached an agreement over the phone in about 10 minutes,” says Jason, “although it took a little longer once the solicitors did their bit.”

Speaking of the transition, Jason explains, “Agriculture has a problem. We don’t hand over the reins quickly enough to the next generation. I was lucky that my father gave me the chance to make decisions, to make mistakes and to learn the business from a young age. You know when you’re ready to take on a business. It’s in you, you just know. What we’ve built over these thirty years has been hard work, and we’ve had some luck, but I now know the time is right to let a new generation take it on.”

Ellis Eggs changed hands at the end of August, and although there are already signs of change, there’s no revolutionary message. Instead, calming words of comfort for colleagues, customers and producers alike. Reassurance, continuity, stability, longevity, engagement. This is a business in good health and one that values people, and Jason and Gwesyn have spent the important first weeks in personal conversations with the team around them and in the farming community.

Gwesyn and Jason have committed their immediate futures in partnership, with Jason spending at least the next two years in the business. The pair are equally excited about the prospect of working together. “We’ve just secured two new long-term agreements with customers,” they said. “We want to grow, but in the right way. Sustainably, and profitably.”

Meeting with them both, it’s easy to imagine the formidable combination they could make. Jason is a veteran of an industry that has seen extraordinary change during his three-decade tenure, adept at cutting his cloth to the trading conditions, protecting the security of his company and engendering the loyalty of the team around him. He’s grown the company substantially over the years, but not by pursuing only growth.

Little more than three years ago, Gwesyn didn’t own an egg. He’s now in the driving seat of one of the only Lion Code registered packing centres in Wales, with a dozen supplying farmers and two hundred thousand layers of his own. He’s 29, but he has the quiet, polite confidence and authority of someone much, much older. Little wonder HSBC have so much faith in him, and so they should.

Speaking of the tumultuous market of recent times, and the uncertainty of the near future, it’s evident that Jason has far from finished his egg industry journey. He speaks with enthusiasm and excitement and listens with active interest as Gwesyn describes the need for industry to better acknowledge the value of the investment and risk that farmers take.

“Producers are often overlooked and should be better represented. Some have lost sight of just how much it costs to build a free-range farm, or to borrow that kind of money. It’s a colossal amount and comes with risks that keep people awake at night. Farmers deserve better support, and to be treated fairly.” Coming from someone with now considerable skin in the game, that should be a sentiment that comforts any producer wary perhaps of change or of youth.

The abiding message, then, is ‘business as usual’. Yes, a change of guard. But as has been the case for the last 30 years, this is company in very good hands. And so it is now for the next 30 years.