Frontier Agriculture Ltd is the UK's largest crop production and grain marketing business, jointly owned by Associated British Foods and Cargill plc. Frontier has a market share of 20% of the

grain market The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals such as wheat, barley, maize, rice, and other food grains. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other agri ...

, trades around of grain per year, and has an annual turnover in excess of £1.5 billion. The Frontier

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

business supplies of seed to UK farmers. Frontier has 46 sites across the UK and employs more than 1,100 colleagues. They manage 160 agronomists, of land, and are supported by a national trials programme comprising 12,000 replicated plots. Frontier is the largest UK distributor of

fertiliser A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrition, plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from Liming (soil), liming materials or other non- ...

. Frontier has several divisions providing additional specialist advice to growers. These include SOYL precision crop production and Kings, who are experts on game cover, conservation crops, green cover and forage crops. Nomix is one of the UK's suppliers of

weed control Weed control is a type of pest control, which attempts to stop or reduce growth of weeds, especially noxious weeds, with the aim of reducing their competition with desired flora and fauna including domesticated plants and livestock, and in natu ...

products and technical support services for amenity and industrial weed control. Frontier's main offices are in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

, Cranswick, Witham St Hughs, Diss, Sandy, Hermitage and

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, near the border with Wales. It had a population estimated at 10,978 in 2021. It lies in the south-east of the county, on the River Wye and on the northern edge of the Fore ...

History

Allied Grain (owned by Associated British Foods) and Banks Cargill Agriculture merged in April 2005 under the direction of David Irwin (MD Allied Grain) to form Frontier Agriculture. Allied Grain was based in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. Banks Cargill Agriculture was formed in February 2001 between

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated is an American multinational food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill, it is the largest privately held c ...

and Sidney C Banks, a UK

grain trade The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals such as wheat, barley, maize, rice, and other food grains. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other agri ...

r based in Sandy. Following Cargill's merger with Banks Agriculture, Mark Aitchison was appointed MD of the newly formed business. In February 2012, Frontier announced that it had acquired TAP (The Agronomy Partnership), a specialist agronomy business based in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, consisting of a team of four crop Production specialists across

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. Frontier and a mobile seed cleaning business, formed a joint venture operation in 2013, to process and market seed in the East Midlands. Under the arrangement, GFP operates as a separate independent entity with Frontier taking a significant stake in the business. GFP is a seed specialist located in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

. The business was formed in 2010 with the merger of Phillips Seeds Ltd and Gibson & Faulding Ltd. In 2014, Frontier Agriculture acquired GH2, the parent company of Grain Harvesters.

-based Grain Harvesters was established in 1947, and has built up a customer base across south-east England. Since 2004 Frontier has owned 50% of

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

Grain Terminal (SGT), with the other 50% owned by The Soufflet Group. Frontier acquired of the 100% shareholding in SGT in 2021. This was followed by an immediate investment of £5 million in a new ship loader and infrastructure upgrade. Frontier is a founding investor in the agricultural bank Oxbury, launched in February 2021. Oxbury is the UK's only specialist agricultural bank and the only bank with a singular focus on the rural economy. On 20 October 2021, Frontier acquired Yagro as a standalone independent subsidiary of the Frontier Group. YAGRO is a provider of data analytics for the UK agricultural industry and was founded in 2015 by Richard Sears, Gareth Davies (CEO) and Dan Jolly. Also in October 2021, work began to build the largest oat-processing facility in Europe, a joint venture between Frontier, a

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

-owned cooperative, and Anglia Maltings Holdings (AMH), a food and drink ingredient manufacturer. The site of the new mill is a key arable region between

Corby Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

and

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

References

{{reflist North Kesteven District Companies based in Lincolnshire Agriculture companies of the United Kingdom Agriculture companies established in 2005 Associated British Foods Cargill British companies established in 2005