Case Study: Promar International

Promar is the UK’s largest agricultural and agri-food consultancy, a division of Genus PLC.  Promar works with more than 2000 farmers in the UK and overseas, providing advice to maximise profit and fulfil the strategic objectives of the business.  Promar also works with commercial and trade organisations and governments globally to manage projects and provide advice to develop ambitious businesses.

Genus and Promar work very closely with Tesco.  They manage Tesco’s Future Farmers Foundation (TFFF).  This scheme is designed to take farmers who work within Tesco’s supply chain and give them the required skills to deliver more successful businesses whilst serving Tesco’s needs.  Part of this year long development program includes leadership and commercial negotiation.

From a start point of business planning and decision making, bridge][ability’s involvement with the TFFF has grown to include commercial negotiation development.  This has presented some almost unique challenges for us.  First, the agricultural sector was unfamiliar to us and whilst we know that our expertise is applicable across all industries, we did need to develop an understanding of the challenges presented in modern farming. Second, due to the time pressures in place on the TFFF, bridge][ability has been required to deliver impactful and useful material in an unusually short period of time.  Our involvement with the TFFF has required us to be highly disciplined in our delivery and has shown us what can be packed into a few short hours.  

Although brief, our interactions with the TFFF delegates have led to many of them taking places on our longer programs.  As the pressures grow on the UK farming industry, the ability to negotiate a good deal continues to be extremely important.