Doves Farm: dynamic development with mill products

35 years ago and 80 km to the west of London, the parents of Jethro Marriage began processing their own grain and selling it to the first wholefood shops in the vicinity. Today you can see in Hungerford, near Newbury, a modern company building with a mill that supplies a wide range of flours, biscuits and other mill products across the whole of Britain. Although the organic market in the UK has experienced serious problems in recent year, Doves Farm has achieved good rates of growth and developed into the biggest organic flour specialist in the country.
Photo: Assortment of cookies of Doves Farm
“At that time we were young and enthusiastic,” says Michael Marriage, when recalling the early days in the 1970s. He had just taken over the farm his parents bought in 1958, and in 1977 he converted it to organic. Since selling organic cereals was a problem, he bought a small stone mill so that he could start processing and refining them himself. “In the 1980s we supplied around 1,500 wholefood and health food shops direct,” reminisces the sixty-year-old, who still manages the business. However, his son Jethro (29), who has trained in business management, entered the company some time ago and is now in charge of business development. A second son, Rupert, has recently joined the others in the family firm. Before taking over the farm at the age of 26, Michael Marriage was active in development work for Oxfam in West Africa, and this is why he regards it as important today that products he sources in third world countries are fair-trade certified. He still supports, on a voluntary basis, a company in Sierra Leone that produces baby food. Clare Marriage is the Chief Executive of the company and responsible for the day to day management of the business. Michael looks after the machinery and grain purchase. (Picture: Jethro on the left next to his parents Clare and Michael Marriage)

“It all began 35 years ago with flour from wheat we had grown ourselves. In the meantime we have put 50 different varieties of flour on the market,” Michael Marriage proudly explains. In total there are 168 articles on the supply list that are delivered direct to the retail trade, to the wholefood wholesale trade and to supermarkets like Sainsburys, Waitrose, Tesco and the internet retailer Ocado. Since the lion’s share of the organic market operates via the conventional trade in Britain, it’s not surprising that 50 % of Doves Farm’s turnover is via this sales channel, with the specialist trade accounting for 35 % and processors sourcing raw materials for 15 %. In total, 10,000 tons of cereals are processed every year, with exports becoming increasingly important in view of the sluggish domestic market. Today 8 % of turnover is attributable to exports that are sent to 20 European countries. The main sources of demand are Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scandinavia, France and Greece. Recently the first container of Doves Farm goods started its journey to wholefood stores in Australia where it will arrive after five weeks at sea. Doves Farm has now registered turnover of £15m a year (approximately €18m), and for 2013 they are expecting growth of 8 %, a little higher than the 6 % achieved in 2012.

75 employees work in flour production in the company mill and in administration. The administration wing was built in 2009, and the area of the mill was extended in 2011 by 50 % by adding a new facility that houses brand new machinery. This work has trebled the capacity. The new Bühler roller mill grinds 5 t of grain an hour. Another branch of the business has expanded in recent years. Since 2008 they have offered gluten-free pasta, and the demand for gluten-free products in general is increasing all the time, so that 40 % of flour production is now gluten-free. This is the only area of activity where they still use some conventional grain, thus rendering it not completely organic. (Picture on left: Herd of sheep at Doves Farm)

The product range includes different types of flour in 25 kg and 16 kg sacks and in consumer packs, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cereal bars, pastas made from rice and maize and permitted baking agents and bakery utensils. Although the emphasis is on regional production and marketing (80 %), for some years cereal varieties from other countries have increasingly featured in the product range (20 %), an example being buckwheat from China. “We use a wide range of heritage and artisan grains, most recently quinoa has been added to several new products, Cocoa and Quinoa Biscuits, Chocolate Chip & Quinoa Biscuits and Gluten Free Quinoa & Fig Cookie,” explains Michael Marriage. Their flour range also includes kamut, rice, einkorne, rye, gram, buckwheat and spelt flours, to name a few. 
(Picture: A 50 kilowatt installation on the roof of the warehouse has been generating eco-electricity for a year)

The farm belonging to the Marriage family, that is now run by a farm manager, is located only a few kilometers from the company headquarters in Hungerford. On half of the 130 hectares they grow cereals, and on the other half clover grass. On the pasture, 300 breeding mule ewes roam free all year round. For Michael Marriage his 20 robust Mangalitza pigs, originally from Hungary, are a hobby. The farm lies in Wiltshire, a county to the west of London and south of Oxford. Sheep and lambs go to an abattoir in the vicinity that sends the butchered meat to box schemes in south-west England. The landscape round the farm is hilly, and nearby is the highest limestone hill in England (about 300 m above sea level), that is home to valuable flora and fauna. (Picture: Michael Marriage with his Mangalitzas)

Tip: http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk