By Ken Fletcher

THE TAKEOVER of St Boswells Mart has proved to have been a successful one in its first year, according to new owners, the H and H Group, which is based in Carlisle.

A year on and H and H has opened a new property and estate office, plus premises for its insurance business on the site, and plans to invest heavily in the mart's infrastructure in the coming years, said its managing director, Brian Richardson.

That's bolstered by first year results which have added 7% to cattle numbers and 5% to sheep throughput, with a build up of 'direct to slaughter' trade on top of that.

Mr Richardson revealed to The Scottish Farmer last week that detailed plans for redevelopment of the site to improve facilities, including a new mart office, would be lodged in the coming months. A longer term plan is to develop the mart into a 'rural centre' along the lines of Carlisle, where many rural businesses are based.

"We have always favoured gentle evolution over revolution and it has worked in the other centres in the north of England that we have taken over," said Mr Richardson. "We have been in discussion with some local rural businesses to see how we can progress from here.

"The message we have tried to get across is that we are in this business for the long-term and we intend to invest time effort and money into both St Boswells and its associated mart at Wooler," he added.

That will include putting a roof over some of the open pens at St Boswells, a new mart office with meeting rooms and improvements to the mart restaurant. There are 18 acres in the mart site, with a further 26 acres used for grazing which may have development potential.

"We have a very professional team at H and H and whilst it has taken time to integrate things like computer systems for throughput and accounting, we are confident that we now have things in place to concentrate on making this the first choice centre for farmers in the area.

"Initially, there was understandably some nervousness about what we were going to do with St Boswells and Wooler. But, hopefully, we have proven – as we have done in other situations like this – that we are a big enough company to take a long-term view. We are not in this for short-term gain," said Mr Richardson, adding that local feedback had been largely positive.

Parts of H and H's long-term plans have already been put in place, with the opening last week of its new Scottish land agency office, which will be headed up by James Murphy, who has been made H and H's land and property's principal director for Scotland.

The former head of ANM's property business is being assisted by Douglas Orr in offering farmers in the area the full gamut of property services from the newly refurbished The Gatehouse, at the entrance to the mart. Both will be supported by PA Angela Webster.

Mr Murphy said: "St Boswells is a major meeting point for farmers from across the Scottish Borders and Northumberland, in opening this office, adjacent to our sister company, H and H Insurance, we want the mart to be seen as a genuine business centre, similar to the model we operate at Carlisle."