MORE than 200 farmers and guests attended the official opening of the ForFarmers Exeter feed mill on September 21 after its £10 million redevelopment.

ForFarmers Chief Operating Officer Steven Read gave the official welcome and outlined the three major themes that drive the business.

“Investment in manufacturing and logistics, of which the Exeter mill’s rebuild and restructuring has been a major part, has been key to the development of the business. The significant rebuild and restructuring process over the last two years has increased the mill’s output capacity from 140,000 to 300,000 tonnes of animal feed a year,” he said.

“The use of data to help drive future farm development and productivity and the continued investment in high quality people through the ForFarmers training academies, are also key themes as we take the business forward,” Steven added.

Site manager Simon Short welcomed guests, gave a health and safety overview and talked through the state-of-the art equipment. These included new loading facility that utilises pre-loaded feed bins and has cut discharge of feed into delivery vehicles from 90 minutes to 90 seconds.

Open day guests enjoyed a tour of the mill control room, the new energy efficient vertical feed conveyor transport system and where able to climb to the top of the mill, which is 15 metres higher than the previous structure.

“The redevelopment is an exciting step forward and after years of hard work and significant financial investment, it is great to see the Exeter Mill running to its full potential,” said Steven.

“The redevelopments will have a really positive impact on our UK business as a whole, but especially our South West based customers.”