The Farmers Mart Jun-Jul 2019 - Issue 63 | Page 64

64 RIPON FARM SERVICES
JUN/JUL 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk
SUCCESS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Ripon Farm Services is a long-standing traditional agricultural business starting from small beginnings back in the
1930’s as Glovers of Ripon. In 1961 a young Geoff Brown joined them as a 16-year-old apprentice. In 1965 the business
was taken over by the Appleyard Group who were predominantly Nuffield Tractors and BMC Car dealers.
IN 1966 the Appleyard Group took on one
of the first UK John Deere dealerships.
Geoff was promoted to John Deere demon-
strator for the group - a position that previ-
ously had been unheard of and would you
believe it, Geoff can be seen ploughing on
a John Deere 4020 Tractor in one of the first
John Deere UK National brochures!
Geoff continued progressing within the
business until 1973 when he was ap-
proached to run the Ripon branch. Howev-
er, he had always wanted to start his own
business.
So, in October 1982 Geoff, together with
the late Maurice Hymas and Bill House-
man set up Ripon Farm Services and took
on both the John Deere and Land Rover
franchises. In their first year they started
with nineteen members of staff and dou-
bled their initial business plan target.
Ripon Farm Services has continued to
thrive and grow despite the challenging
conditions that have faced the farming
world across the years. It now serves
customers across Yorkshire, The Hum-
ber, Teesside and parts of Lincolnshire,
Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and North-
umberland. The company employs 240
people across 12 main depots and has a
turnover in excess of £100million.
Geoff has always had the strategy of
continual development and looking for
new growth opportunities. Research
and planning of these is something Geoff
believes in strongly.
Ripon Farm Services has always had
the agricultural sector as its key focus,
so with that in mind they sold the Land
Rover dealership to the Lloyd group to
allow greater focus and investment on
the agricultural business. Ripon decid-
ed to retain the highly successful Paint
and Body division which is approved by
major motor manufacturers including Jag-
uar Land Rover and Volvo as well as most
major insurance companies including
the NFU. The facilities are supported by
the most modern of equipment and a
team of highly qualified specialist paint
sprayers and panel beaters. Other main
dealers use the facilities of Ripon Paint
and Body as they are highly regarding for
quality and service. Individuals can bring
their vehicles to Ripon paint and body for
everything from a smart repair to a full
body shell rebuild.
This success enabled Ripon to make
a significant investment and the team
have moved to a brand-new state of the
art purpose-built facility just a few yards
along from the main office. The new facili-
ty is vast in size and able to accommodate
all makes of vehicle from a Mini to a com-
bine harvester. There is a fully stocked
workshop complete with MOT facilities
which will enable Ripon to service their
own fleet of vehicles. There are new state
of the art spray booths including ones for
Cars, Vans, Commercials and Agricultural
equipment as well as a dedicated alumin-
ium repair bay required for many modern
vehicles. Without doubt this will be one
of the very best facilities in the North of
England which will sport an impressive
staff of thirty.