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Cranswick’s Bernard Hoggarth has been a pioneer for change in the British meat and farming industries for more than 30 years. As the company has developed from a regional feed mill to a national food manufacturer, he can take some of the credit for the growth of the premium sausage market, the increased weight and quality that British pigs are now marketed at, and the greater confidence of farmers in dealing with processors, for it was his business that introduced credit insurance schemes back in the 1970s. Hoggarth has also been responsible for some eye-catching publicity ploys over the years.

THE CRANSWICK STORY

The Cranswick story, since its foundation as a pig-feed producer back in the 1970s, has been one of disciplined and steady business growth through expansion into new markets and some quality acquisitions. Hoggarth joined the then two-year-old feed company in 1975, as marketing manager and employee number three. “To this day 003 is still the number on my salary slip,” he says. “I should have waited a few months and it may have been 007!” 

He is now chief executive of the group’s food division with an annual turnover of more than £600m. More than 90% of Cranswick’s sales comes from the supply of fresh and processed food to the UK retail, manufacturing and foodservice sectors, supplying a diverse range of fresh pork, gourmet sausages, premium cooked meats, traditional dry-cured bacons, charcuterie and sandwiches from a dozen production sites.  A Yorkshireman to his boots, Hoggarth started out marketing protein concentrates with on-farm formulations for Isaac Spencer in Aberdeen, before moving to East Anglia where he started a sales and distribution centre for the company in the days before it was aquired by BOCM. 

Married to Rosemarie at 20, they moved into a £5-a-week furnished cottage 20 miles north of Aberdeen. “Within a week of getting married, my new wife, who left home and a beautiful house, was in tears standing in the middle of the kitchen in a two-foot snowdrift that had blown in overnight through a gap around the door. It was minus 18˚C and, at that point, I wondered whether the marriage would last,” he said. It did.

One of the original farmer directors of Cranswick, Jim Bloom was a customer of Hoggarth’s, and it was he who persuaded the young marketeer to join the company. Originally set up through 23 farmers, who had bought shares in the company based on their projected feed off-take, Cranswick quickly grew and, to finance ambitious expansion plans in 1985, it floated on the then Unlisted Securities Market (similar to AIM). The USM was a vehicle for smaller, less mature companies and perfect for Cranswick’s plans at that time. The farmers got 40 new shares for every original one they held and the Cranswick Mill Group obtained the financing to start processing, which it added to its animal feed business, livestock trading division and pig finishing operation.

MARKETING FLAIR

Marketing is, of course, all about getting known and, in this respect, Hoggarth did more than most in the 1980s and ’90s. Pigs, he knows, are intelligent animals that get easily bored, so he gave them footballs to play with in the pens – at least that is how the story goes. From that small initiative came some legendary publicity that resulted in the pigs being divided into teams – Trotternham Hotspur and West Ham – with Hoggarth in the pen in full refereeing outfit, complete with whistle! “The things you have to do,” he sighs. “Still it was great TV and press coverage.”

Frivolous as pig football may seem, it raised awareness of Cranswick’s pig enterprise by eye-catching publicity ploys and may have helped grow the business into one of the largest enterprises of its type in the UK. On a more sober level, the company was the first to introduce credit insurance into pig trading. “There was a lot of concern over the stability of abattoirs in the 1980s. We were a primary buyer in the market, so we took responsibility for the purchase of pigs by taking out credit insurance for the farmers against bad debts. We led the way on credit insurance and soon everyone was doing it. It gave farmers the confidence to deal with abattoirs who were not so well-known or local.”

Cranswick was also the first major company to throw away the knife, and to deal solely in entire male pigs. At the time this was a radical move, as there was some opposition to it, primarily from the bacon industry that was concerned about the ability of meat from whole animals to take a cure. As well as animal welfare considerations, it resulted in better returns for farmers because pigs grew bigger more quickly. The move set the benchmark for other companies and for a general increase in the size of pig being traded to 80kg deadweight or more.

To reduce its exposure to the vagaries of the pig market, Cranswick’s next move was further up the supply chain. “We had the feed, we had the pigs, we needed to get into meat and food processing,” said Hoggarth. “We set our store out with a definite USP, and that was to be at the premium end of the market. We wanted to raise the bar to take in meat quality, provenance and authenticity.”

Following a spate of bad publicity, the sausage market was ripe for this treatment in 1995 and the result was the formation of the Gourmet Sausage Company.  At the time, the concept of using high-quality meat cuts and different flavourings to produce sausages was relatively new. Indeed, it took six months to persuade Sainsbury’s it was the right direction to go. Yet what started as a niche section of the market now accounts for half the industry’s volume. A similar model has been used to develop premium bacon, a market that, with more than £1bn of annual sales, has twice the turnover and potential of the UK sausage market.

TAKE-OVER TRAIL

As well as growth of the existing business through investment, Cranswick has been a regular rider on the takeover trail, acquiring, among others, Lazenby’s, Pethick & Co, Perkins Chilled Foods, Continental Fine Foods and The Sandwich Factory.

Hoggarth does not blink when asked how the company will fare in a recession-hit economy, where the focus is moving rapidly to the value end of the market. “The super-premium part of the business accounts for about 25% of group turnover” he says. “Our product portfolio goes across the board, encompassing good, better, best. Our business is not managed by poker players; we need to hold as many cards as possible.”

Hoggarth puts Cranswick’s successful growth down to good product development and good service to its customers. In the last two years, it has invested over £40m in its business, including an addition to its sausage factory, a new air-dried bacon plant and, now, the building of a new state-of-the-art abattoir that will increase capacity. This is a sign of the firm’s continued commitment to the British pig industry, he stresses. “Others are closing, we’re building and investing in a pig industry that we believe has the worst behind it. The high cost of investment is a barrier to entry for newcomers to the food-processing sector.” 

While ‘value’ may be the current watchword, the true value is where the quality line crosses the retail price line on the hypothetical graph and the lower that crossover point is on the chart, the better the value he says. “Food production cannot be done on the cheap. There are sausage plants in this country that are from a bygone era.”

PHENOMENAL FUTURE

Far from lamenting the current state of the British pig industry, Hoggarth thinks it has a “phenomenal” future. “The industry is less than 50% self-sufficient, yet demand from retailers for British product is strong and the weakness of Sterling means that UK prices are very competitive with European prices,” he says. “European suppliers may not want to sell into the UK if they can get a euro-based price on the Continent. Prices for British pig meat will continue to firm.”

Cranswick’s business model for the next 10 years will be the same as the last 30, he insists, adding that this also applies to other companies looking to expand into the sector. “Stick to what you know, grow organically and through sensible acquisition, and promote ‘home-grown’ quality people. We’re in a people business and I’m lucky to work with some of the best in the industry.”

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