A H Hillers' Right Hand Man

A H Hiller and Son is a family run business based in the Vale of Evesham. It not only crops apples and plums traditional to the area but is presently busy developing their enterprise. The MD Richard Beach can also be proud of the extensive farm shop they have. From its beginnings in 1912 the farm now accounts for 200 acres of mainly Cox apple orchards, 60 acres of Victoria and Marjorie seedlnig plums, 30 acres of strawberries and a small range of brassicas grown for the farm shop. The majority of the fruit is sold to ASDA.

A large part of the success of this company is through its employee relations. The staff turnover is exceptionally low and in fact last summer two employees were awarded the Royal Agricultural Society's Long Service Medal for the forty years spent working on the farm. The present Assistant Farm manager Russell Duggan started working on the farm as a young lad of 13, spending his summers and weekending helping out before studying for a HND in Commercial Horticulture at Writtle College. In 1995 Russ took on the job as right hand man to Richard Beach and in this role takes on the responsibility for the day to day running of the farm which includes being in charge of the 8 full time farm staff, 60 HOPS students and 65 local casuals.

When asked about the 2002 season Russ explained that he had very pleasing yields of Elsanta and was particularly happy with the results of the Diamente strawberry crop. The plum crop also showed very good yields, however there were problems with marked fruit and again the apple crop was good but as with many other growers stalk end cracking was an issue. And going into 2003? The strawberry crop is once again increasing in area with the aim of having all the production under tunnels within the next couple of years. The support received from AMS has given the team at A H Hiller the confidence to develop this side of their business. In terms of the apples and pears, the production will stay at the same old level with work taking place to pull out older orchards, thus allowing concentration on producing quality fruit from younger trees.

Spring 2003