Investing in West Suffolk Award

Claydon Drills won the Investing in West Suffolk Award

Transcript

00:00I'm joined by Spencer, Oliver and Jeff from Claydon Drills, who've just picked up the

00:07Investing in West Suffolk Award. Huge congratulations, chaps. Jeff, I'm going to start with you because

00:11you've got the award in your hand. How happy to pick it up this evening?

00:14Absolutely delighted. We've been working very hard for the last 20 years, and we're now

00:19a world player in the drill market and agriculture. Fantastic.

00:24Family-run business, as you say, plenty of decades in the industry. Tell us, Spencer,

00:28for those who haven't had the business before, what is it you do and who are you?

00:32We manufacture agricultural seed drills. We're based in Wickenbrook, so between Bury and

00:37Newmarket in Haverhill. We're a rural business. We also have a farm there, so everything's

00:43designed, manufactured and sold from there to 30 different countries around the world.

00:49Fantastic. Oliver, the award this evening is Investing in West Suffolk. You run apprenticeship

00:53schemes and employment initiatives locally. Why is that important to you?

00:56It's important to us because we feel that West Suffolk's our home. It's where we're

01:00from. This is where we develop the equipment, and this is where we want to develop the people

01:03in the industry as well and bring people into agriculture to grow agriculture as well as

01:08our company. You've mentioned it there. You're proud,

01:11proud Suffolk, born and bred. Clearly, Investing in West Suffolk is a big part of this this

01:16evening. What are the plans going forward to continue to grow the business and continue

01:19to grow your investment in the area? Exactly that. We want to continue to grow

01:24the business. We're growing internationally, and we obviously need to take more people

01:28on, employ more people and grow the business in the area. Long term, we want to continue

01:35our growth. We're growing at around 30% per annum over the last probably four years. We

01:42want to continue that trend. Fantastic. You've mentioned it's a family-run

01:45business. There's only one trophy. Whose mantelpiece is that going on, Jeff?

01:49I think that might be in my office. I'd also like to thank all our suppliers locally here

01:55in West Suffolk who supply us and our subcontractors who do lots of work for us as well.

02:02And our employees and our team as well. And everybody in the whole team, because without

02:07our fantastic team, we wouldn't be here today. Thank you, everybody.

02:12Jeff, congratulations. Well done to the Wilder team. Enjoy your evening and enjoy that in

02:16the office too. Thank you very much.

02:19Thank you. Cheers, gents. Well done.

02:21Thank you very much. Thank you.