Buying groups

I used to be a member of Woldmarsh at a previous farm. They were very good. No excess overheads & very member friendly. They were good for sorting utilities out. They have a TFF membership so I dare say they are watching this thread... ;)

AF weren't competitive for electricity but the firm I work for now has 80+ meters so we went direct to a broker for our own electricty contracts. I'm currently fighting with N Power over excessive bills on my main farm 1/2 hourly smart meter (wrong multiplier?) so we'll see how good the broker really is soon enough! We do our own mobile contracts direct with Vodafone too but we have 75 handsets so have access to the same account dept as the buying groups doing hundreds.
Thank you for your kind words about Woldmarsh; our utilities department has grown from strength to strength so we now offer mains gas and this year will be in a position to offer water deals for Members too.
 
Noting your comments about charges and levies. Woldmarsh have just written to all Members to notify that there is no increase to charges for the 3rd year running. One of our key values is around efficiency and it's being nimble without compromise on service that sets us apart.
 

Welsh Farmer

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Wales
We made up our own buying group. It was just three farms, two were the same size and the third was much smaller so they benefited enormously from joining forces with us. It really worked well, I just invited suppliers to quote for all three farm's buying needs with deliveries and invoicing to be made to each individual farm. We all fared well with the greater discount I was able to negotiate and apart from the initial work with talking to the suppliers and negotiating terms there was no further work involved. A total win-win situation imo (y)
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Fram Farmers operate in the NW and do a good job for me. I can get you the contact number of the guy that looks after members locally to see if its for you?

Another thumbs up for Fram for me.
Suppliers think Anglesey is on Mars and sting us on transport so buying through Fram saves us a lot of money.
The more you use a buying group, the cheaper things look especially if you are out on a limb geographically speaking
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Fram Farmers operate in the NW and do a good job for me. I can get you the contact number of the guy that looks after members locally to see if its for you?
we joined through a study group en masse all dairy men, not one of them is still a member, fuel was the biggest disappointment, but being so close to ellesmere port probably helps on that one and being well located geographically
 

marshfarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Norfolk
I am in a buying group, they usually beat any price that I can get on my own. I use them for fuel, fertilizer and some chemicals, occasional seed and all my dealings with the local ag-engineers go through them as I get extra discount.

Costs me £20 per month
That's definitely not the one based up this way, as it costs more than that, and the prices aren't always that sharp :bag:
 
Location
Cheshire
we joined through a study group en masse all dairy men, not one of them is still a member, fuel was the biggest disappointment, but being so close to ellesmere port probably helps on that one and being well located geographically
They were a penny out for a while things have improved. Feed is my biggest saving, fert second. Market intelligence contributes as much as group discounts to savings.
 

Half Full

Member
Location
Southwest
We've been in a small local buying group for over twenty years, savings on cow cake alone have been huge over the years. joined one of the large national buying groups six months ago who deal with all the big input sellers, have to say I've been a little disappointed so far I think they are probably very top heavy regards management etc but time will tell.
 

7800

Member
Location
cambridgeshire
Noting your comments about charges and levies. Woldmarsh have just written to all Members to notify that there is no increase to charges for the 3rd year running. One of our key values is around efficiency and it's being nimble without compromise on service that sets us apart.

That's a lot different to Anglia farmers who increase their fees every year without fail...........
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
I've noticed that a small buying group in Devon is based at the chairman's address of a huge buying group/coop. Wonder where he buys from?


Interesting .......... does the Chairman not have sufficient influence within the company he represents :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
I don't know have to ask @Cows 'n grass as i think he is a member?

Yep that's our little group, the South Hams Dairy Co-op.

The secreatary for the co-op is married to the chairman of Mole Valley so the correspondence address' will be the same. They are also members of the co-op because their family are dairy farmers.

We don't actually buy a lot from Mole, some fert but no feed or fuel. We get no preferential treatment I'm afraid.
 
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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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