Campbell & Penty in takeover deal with Saxon

YORKSHIRE-BASED GRAIN and seed merchants Campbell & Penty has been acquired by Saxon Agriculture.

Campbell & Penty, based near York, has traded with farmers and consumers in Yorkshire since 1921

The business will continue to trade locally, from a new Tadcaster office, under the Campbell & Penty name with all transactions secured by Saxon’s UK parent business, Bairds Malt.

Saxon Grain director, Mark Smith, said: “Access to firsthand farm grain in Yorkshire and North East will allow us to now source cereals, oilseeds and pulses directly from growers across all the major English arable regions and thereby better serve our customers.

“We are also looking forward to working with the Campbell & Penty team to introduce our unique mix of competitive prices, original forward contracts and market leading levels of service to farmers in the region.”

Saxon managing director, Nigel Gossett, said: “At a time of contraction and consolidation in the merchant sector we are confident that farmers and consumers will benefit from the presence of a new, secure trading partner in the region.”

Saxon Agriculture was established in June 1993 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Moray Firth Maltings, the malting arm of brewing giant Scottish and Newcastle.

Following the unison of Moray Firth Maltings and Hugh Baird and Sons, Conagra Inc’s UK business, Bairds Malt Ltd was formed in March 1999.

They achieved combined annual production capacity of 245,000 tonnes of malt.

As of this date Saxon Agriculture is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bairds Malt.

In November 2009 Bairds Malt Ltd was bought by GrainCorp Ltd, which is based in South East Australia.