Dairy farmer’s son leads ‘eggspansion’
Ken Cottey admitted his dad would be “spinning in his grave” if he saw what he’d done to his 35 acre dairy farm as he gave us a guided tour, earlier this year.
It took Cottey two years after his father passed away to decide to transform the Somerset dairy farm into a £1.5M egg production facility.
But the risk has paid off, initially success was found supplying Deans Foods but when it was taken over my Noble Foods too much politics became involved and Cottey went it alone.
Aldi is now the biggest client for Blackdown Hills Westcountry Eggs, which has an output of 1.3M eggs a week.
The firm is now turnover almost £3M a year and plans to invest £250,000 on a new roadway and three loading bays. It also plans to boost output by 500,000 eggs a week once it has improved packaging and grading efficiency.
Listen to Cottey’s efficiency plan in our exclusive podcast and read about his journey from Land Rover to egg king in the full feature.