By Anna Burdett

Last updated at 15:54, Friday, 21 September 2012

A group of passionate farmers who pledged £400,000 to save a Cumbrian auction mart are celebrating its survival and growth into a thriving business a decade on.

Dave Crowden, chairman of Penrith Mart, left and auctioneer John Wharton

In 2002 after foot and mouth devastated the county, Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s sold its livestock business to Carlisle-based Harrison & Hetherington and Penrith mart was to be closed down.

But 170 farmers pledged thousands of pounds of their own money to run it as a co-operative and last year, it made a record profit of £400,000.

Auctioneer John Wharton said: “It’s been a tremendous achievement by the directors of the mart – to start from virtually zero to 10 years of success with a growth in profit each year.”

Next week, the mart will celebrate 10 years with shows and sales of cattle and sheep all judged by one man – George Hutton, of Setmabanning, near Keswick.

There will be 1,500 head of prime and store cattle through the ring on Monday, 9,000 gimmers on Tuesday and 4,000 prime sheep on Wednesday. In 2003, there were 3,061 store cattle sold through Penrith and last year that figure had quadrupled to 12,000 head.

Chairman David Crowden said the takeover initiative was led by a so-called ‘famous five’ – Brian Donald, Andrew Sayer, Colin Lowis, John Richardson and Robin Raine.

“They brought together the bones around which this partnership was built,” said Mr Crowden.

The original lease of five years was extended to 15 years at renewal by landlords PF&K. “While not owning this site is our Achilles’ heel, we have a very good relationship with our landlord.

“Initially, there were 170 members of the partnership. That has now grown to 330. People have come forward asking if they can join and as the business has grown, we’ve needed more capital.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from younger farmers who’ve been keen to support the mart.”

Last year, £135,000 was spent on roofing some of the pens and the mart intends to cover the rest soon.

Cumbria is well served by auction marts, including a new site in Kendal due to open this month. While work has already started on Hopes’ new mart in Wigton.

Mr Crowden acknowledged that the challenge to continue growing was tough but said there was a bigger problem facing all marts.

“The biggest challenge facing farming generally and livestock marts is that there are less and less buyers as supermarkets are getting bigger and bigger,” he said.

“We’ll be dealing with fewer people and the problems that presents. It concentrates the power in the hands of fewer people.”

First published at 13:49, Friday, 21 September 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk