Family farm flourishes

by Catherine Woods - Wednesday, 25th June 2008 -

The Fussel family farm in Somerset is a different place now to when Andy Fussel took over from his father 18 years ago. Instead of just crops, the farm is producing gourmet rapeseed oil and has diversified into road haulage.

The oil is sold locally, in farmers’ markets, trade shows and over the internet. Meanwhile, Fussel’s haulage company, which he started with a school friend and named Rode Haulage after the area, runs seven articulated lorries. Fussel adds: “I’ve also got a couple on the farm and subcontractors run the rest.”

The farm, however, is still Fussel’s biggest concern. In addition to farming “about 550 acres”, Fussel also stores approximately 6,500 tonnes of grain and runs a builder’s merchant. Total turnover is around £4.5m.

Fussel says his father was “ever so good” about handing over the farm when he retired in 1990. “I’m now 42 and I’ve got friends farming locally that still can’t sign a cheque,” he says.

“When I left college, I went around the world for seven or eight months and when I came back, dad sat me down in the family home and said ‘Are you going anywhere now?’ I said ‘No’ so he got out the cheque book and said ‘You’d better get on with that’.”

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