Openfield is a British grain marketing and arable inputs co-operative based 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 ...

. It is one of Britain's largest agricultural companies and Britain's only national co-operative in its field, with a turnover of over £550m. It markets grain for farmers and grain stores. In other countries, mainly

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, this type of company is known as a

wheat pool A wheat pool is a co-operative that markets grain (mostly wheat) on behalf of its farmer-members. In Canada in 1923 and 1924, three wheat pools were created. They were agricultural cooperative, farmer-owned co-operatives, created to break the ...

. The head office is based on the former RAF North Witham and prominent customers include some of the largest and well known British food and drink brands in the UK. Openfield is a member of th
Fertiliser Industry Assurance Scheme
and works with many fertiliser suppliers including CF, Glasson, ICL, Nitrasol, Omex, Origin, Timac and Yara. It is also a member of the Agricultural Industries Confederation.

History

It was formed in November 2008 from the merger of Centaur Grain (of

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

) and Grainfarmers (of

Micheldever Micheldever is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, situated north of Winchester. It lies upon the River Dever . The river, and village, formerly part of Stratton Park, lie on a Hampshire grass downland, underlain with chalk and ...

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

). It is now the largest UK farmer owned grain marketing co-operative and one of the largest companies in Lincolnshire, by turnover. The Colsterworth site opened in 1980.

Centaur Grain

Centaur had been formed in 2001 when Group Cereal Services (GCS) of

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

joined Lingrain of the

East of England East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...

. It was based at Goodworth Clatford in north Hampshire.

Grainfarmers

This began as the Southern Counties Agricultural Trading Society in 1907. It was renamed as Grainfarmers Group Ltd in 2003. It had offices in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Walton (near

Wetherby Wetherby ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire and lies approximately from Leeds city centre, from ...

Bressingham Bressingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Bressingham is located north-west of Diss, Norfolk, Diss and north-east of Norwich. History Bressingham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old E ...

, Compton Abdale, Cannington and

. It marketed over 17% of the UK's grain and represented over 4000 farmers.

External links

Openfield

"Anticipated merger between Grainfarmers Group and Centaur Grain Group"
(

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economi ...

, 2008) * {{Agriculture in the United Kingdom British companies established in 2008 Companies based in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District Co-operatives in the United Kingdom Agricultural marketing cooperatives Agricultural supply cooperatives Grain companies Agriculture companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in England