Riverford Organic Vegetables has been named on the Sunday Times list of fastest growing companies, but does growth lead to a sacrifice of principles?

Founded in 1986 by Guy Watson, Riverford provides boxes of seasonal organic vegetables direct from farm to doorstep.

Although the focus is on fruit and vegetables, the family farm in Devon also has various other enterprises, including a dairy herd and dairy, farm shop, bakery, meat box business and the Field Kitchen.

In a world where an increasing number of consumers are striving to shop ethically, scepticism about scale is often voiced accompanied by an assumption that big must be bad. But this is not always the case.

Although the supermarket chains continue to dominate the consumer food market, companies like Riverford are beginning to prove that supplying fresh, organic food from local producers to the public can be done on a relatively large scale, without sacrificing their principles.

"I had no idea what I was getting into when harvesting my first vegetables onto a wheelbarrow in 1986 or even when delivering the first boxes from a beaten up transit in 1993," says founder Guy Watson.

"Though I am very proud that so many people across the country now enjoy our boxes, that our co-op members have a secure market for their produce, and that we provide secure employment for so many people, I never wanted to run a huge company and remain sceptical of the ongoing benefits of scale."

Growth – A 'sisterhood'

Riverford has set up what it refers to as a 'sisterhood' of regional box schemes, working with local growers and delivering locally.

The company has expanded by finding like-minded growers to work with, including farmers at:

• River Nene, on the edge of the Fens
• River Swale, in partnership with a group of family farms near Northallerton in Yorkshire
• The Janaway's farm near Andover, Hampshire

Riverford also aim to find partners in Kent/Sussex and in the North West, and to end up with their food traveling on average not more than sixty miles from farm to doorstep.

Scale

On the positive side, Riverford's increased growth has allowed them to pioneer more sensible forms of packaging, provide better staff facilities, study their environmental impact, run an excellent and informative website and provide a secure market for a growing number of local producers. It has also made it viable to grow a terrific range of vegetables, and to get them fresh to customers with very low food miles.

On the negative side, a larger scale makes it harder to maintain the sense of personal involvement and responsibility of staff; decisions once made while the kettle boiled require weeks of meetings; and red tape once ducked under has to be observed to the letter. Machines can often do things more cheaply but the accompanying inflexibility and slow response to changing customers needs often cancels out the benefit.

Environment

The boxes that Riverford's vegetables arrive in are made from 94% recycled card and can be re-used many times before they are recycled themselves. Paper bags are compostable, while their punnets are made from recycled paper and can be composted, or will degrade.

More recently they have invested in a two-year Knowledge Transfer Project with Exeter University that is providing a very accurate picture of their carbon footprint, and helps them make decisions as to how it can be kept to a minimum.

Price

Perhaps surprisingly, Riverford has proved cheaper than the supermarkets too, as well as fresher and more environmentally friendly. On a recent four-week price comparison, sourcing their box contents in Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose would have cost the customer on average 43% more.

Investors?

It may seem an unusual philosophy, but most of the profits not reinvested in the company are shared between the staff. Guy maintains that Riverford Organic Vegetables will never be sold to investors who do not work there.

The current plan is that, when the time is right, control will pass into some form of employee ownership, probably an employee-owned trust.

The future?

Although Riverford is undoubtedly growing at a relatively rapid level, the element of the personal touch is something which is here to stay. Guy says:

"Curiously enough, one thing I don’t think has suffered much is personal service and responsiveness to customers, thanks to our local distributors, our customer services team, and the ability of customers to come and visit us here, all of which keep us on our toes."

"I would dearly like to offer an alternative route from farm to table on a scale that challenges the madness of the supermarket dominated production and supply chain, while at the same time avoiding the norms of growth. But if I have to choose between growth and staying true to our principles, we’ll stay with our principles."