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00:00 I'm here with Sir Jim Walker of Walkers of Abelow in this audience tonight at Cregel
00:08 Hotel. Jim, you've reflected in your talk tonight about the history of Walkers. How
00:12 do you look back on the last 125 years of your family farm?
00:17 Well, we're very proud to have been able to survive all those years. I think probably
00:21 the most difficult years were the war years that our fathers and grandfather had to survive.
00:28 And then the other difficult years were the last three years because of Covid and the
00:33 Ukrainian war and Brexit and everything. The last three years have been difficult too,
00:38 but we're very proud to be able to survive 125 years and to keep it entirely as a family
00:44 owned and family run business. We've now got some very good top people in helping us to
00:49 run it, but the family is closely involved in many aspects of the business and we're
00:54 proud of that and we think it gives the business a different character to many other businesses.
01:00 You said earlier tonight that it's all about product and people. Is that the two Ps?
01:06 That's absolutely indeed. Product and people. Nowadays, equally important is provenance.
01:14 Provenance as well. These are the things you really need to concentrate on and do very
01:23 well.
01:24 Can you see Walkers being a family owned business for generations to come?
01:28 Well, we're custodians of it at the moment and I've just come through the process of
01:34 handing it over to the next generation. My children are very happy they're in and also
01:39 my late brother Joe's eldest son Nicky is now managing director and that's good for
01:47 the company and his second son is technical director Richard and they are doing a great
01:52 job and I feel comfortable now, glad they came out of the business knowing that it's
01:59 in good hands and they'll do well in the future I'm sure.
02:04 Will you ever retire completely?
02:07 I don't know.
02:10 I just want to ask one last one. Obviously the Royal Warrant is important to the company.
02:16 Does King Charles, do you know his favourite Walkers product?
02:19 He likes, we made a biscuit festive for him so he likes that. He liked the Rosemary and
02:26 Thyme one but it was a savoury product, it was a cracker. But he likes shortbreads as
02:30 well.
02:31 What about yourself, what's your own favourite one over the years?
02:34 Probably the shortbread finger, the old fashioned straightforward shortbread finger, you can't
02:38 beat it.
02:39 And what is it about your product that is just renowned the world over, is it just quality?
02:45 It's quality and it's not using the best, very best ingredient, not just butter, we
02:49 use the best butter, we use the best ingredients and it's the way we do it. We've learnt many
02:56 tricks over 125 years as to how to make the product better and make it more consistent
03:01 365 days a year. So every time the consumer gets it, they should get the same experience
03:07 and I think that's why people trust our product.
03:10 Thank you Jim, that's brilliant.