SJ Stanberry & Sons Ltd – Two sides of a coin
SJ Stanberry & Sons Ltd was
established in 1983, founded
by Stephen Stanberry and now
working closely with his three sons
to further establish and build up
business. Our head office is based
in Cambridgeshire, and we offer two
nationwide services to the public
sector, industrial, agricultural and
commercial markets.
Many years ago SJ Stanberry began
with the delivery and installation
of modular and portable buildings
to schools and colleges across the
UK, and still does today. Over time
we began to include installation of
foundations and service connections
for the buildings, and soon clients
began to request hard landscaping
i.e. drives, patio’s, car parks etc. to
give their project a complete finish.
This enabled us to provide a full
package to our clients, from setting
up on site, forming foundations and
installing the services, to supply and
delivery of the portable or modular
building, undertaking any hard
landscaping and testing all services
and signing the project off. We
are proud to say that SJ Stanberry
& Sons Ltd have built a good
reputation and working relationship
Total Dairy Conference: Learning to
manage staff is key, says show judge
Expanding staff numbers is one of
the most difficult challenges a dairy
farmer will face, but learning to
become a people manager is key to
successful expansion.
staff. Show them the way, back it up
with written protocols and let them
work through it.
“Farmers are hands on and people
and are used to doing everything
themselves, often charging in when
That was the message from
something goes wrong – this is bad
Californian dairy farmer, Hank Van for business.
Exel, who spoke at the conference
and later judged the UK Dairy Expo. “It can also be useful to have your
Mr Van Exel’s father started milking vet or nutritionist speak to your
40 cows after the Second World War team about what is working well
– the business has since expanded to and how things can be improved,
more than 2,100 cows across three as employees often take their
units on 867 hectares (2,360 acres). comments on board a lot better.
Acknowledging expansion
“I spend most of my time
problems, Mr Van Exel said business monitoring, walking around the
owners must make sure they share farm, talking to staff and observing.”
common financial goals with the rest Bonuses did have their advantages,
of their family and managers.
but remember they could also be
“Do you share the same one, five
detrimental, warned Mr Van Exel.
and 10-year plan?” he asked.
“We do not give bonuses to
Identify the talents of your staff and employees, instead I pay them well
learn how to manage them, he also and give group bonuses,” he said.
advised.
“A bonus system can lead to friction,
“Many farmers walk around the
infighting and corners being cut to
farm and see things automatically
meet targets. I prefer to motivate the
because they have been trained, but team to do a good job and reward
it is important to remember this does them with dinner at a restaurant or
not always come naturally to your an extra day off.”
into account the use of the finish