New Year’s Honours list 2017: Who was awarded what?
Glenrath Farms founder and chairman John Campbell was awarded a knighthood for services to farming in the 2017 New Year’s Honours list.
Campbell founded the business 58 years ago, and it has since become Scotland’s top egg producer, employing 240 people.
Glenrath Farms produces 1.5M eggs daily, with an annual turnover of more than £50M. It supplies some of the UK’s leading retailers, and has six brands of eggs – Kitty Campbell’s Free Range Eggs, Cage Free Barn, Big and Scottish, The Glenrath Free Range 15, Glenrath Double Yokers and Glenrath Very Large.
The business holds more than 15,000 hectares of farm, as well as over 10,000 sheep and 600 suckler cows.
‘Outstanding’ contributions
Campbell was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Scotland’s Rural College in July 2016, in recognition of his “outstanding” contributions to Scottish agriculture and the rural economy. Scotland’s Rural College said his business was built on understanding what the customer wants.
At the time, Campbell said: “We have heard a lot of doom and gloom in UK agriculture. However, challenges mean opportunities. As sure as eggs is eggs, opportunities will arise.
“Do not believe that UK farming is in the doldrums. I am sure that there will be marvellous opportunities in agriculture.”
The egg boss was joined by Cofresh Snack Foods md Priyesh Patel, and Willowbrook Foods md William McCann. Patel has worked at the ethnic ambient and frozen food firm since 1997. McCann’s Willowbrook Foods was nominated for three Food Manufacture Excellence Awards in 2015.
Elsewhere in the New Year’s Honours List, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) director Sarah Church was awarded the Order of the Bath (companion) for services to British food and farming.
Services to British food and farming
Church has worked in DEFRA since 2002, having also worked in the Food Policy Unit for three years, from 2009. She has worked as DEFRA director since April 2014.
Meanwhile, other food industry figures who received honours included: Anthony O’Neill, for services to the agri-food sector in Northern Ireland, Evelyn Findlater, ceo and founder of Good Food Matters, for services to young people and William McCann, Willowbrook Foods md, for services to the food industry.
Read who won what in the list below.
Knighthood
- John Campbell OBE, Glenrath Farms chairman, for services to farming and charitable service to entrepreneurship
Order of the Bath (companion)
- Sarah Church, DEFRA director, for services to British food and farming
- Michael Stevens, Scottish government chief scientist office head, for services to research and healthcare
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Inga Beale, Lloyd’s of London ceo, for services to the economy
- Amanda Fisher, Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre director, for services to medical research and the public understanding of science
- Henrietta Ottoline, The Sainsbury Laboratory director, for services to plant science, science in society and equality and diversity in science
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
- Sue-Anne Biggs, Royal Horticultural Society director general, for services to the environment and ornamental horticulture industry
- Michael Depledge, environment and human health chair at the University of Exeter Medical School, for services to the environment and human health
- Stephen Dodgson, UK Export Finance head, for services to the British export economy
- Ronald Emerson, British Business Park chairman, for services to international banking and the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
- Margaret Gibson, Women’s Enterprise Scotland chief executive, for services to business and entrepreneurship.
- Anthony O’Neill, for services to the agri-food sector in Northern Ireland
Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
- Evelyn Findlater, Good Food Matters, ceo, for services to young people
- William McCann, Willowbrook Foods md, for services to the food industry and the community in Northern Ireland
- Ronald McIvor, Farmhouse Biscuits chairman, for services to the food industry and the economic regeneration of east Lancashire
- Priyesh Patel, Cofresh Snack Foods md, for services to the economy in Leicestershire and Exports
- Tony Singh, chef director, for services to the food and drink industry and charity
- Alison Swan Parente, School of Artisan Food founder, for services to the charity and education sector
